The Court of justice delivered today its judgment in case C‑551/15, Pula Parking d.o.o. v Sven Klaus Tederahn, which will be far more welcomed by local authorities than tourists. It is about the scope of application of Brussels I bis (Regulation (EU) No 1215/2012 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 12 December 2012 on jurisdiction and the recognition and enforcement of judgments in civil and commercial matters) as well as the meaning of court within that Regulation.
“1. Article 1(1) of [Brussels I bis means] that enforcement proceedings brought by a company owned by a local authority against a natural person domiciled in another Member State, for the purposes of recovering an unpaid debt for parking in a public car park, the operation of which has been delegated to that company by that authority, which are not in any way punitive but merely constitute consideration for a service provided, fall within the scope of that regulation.
2. Regulation No 1215/2012 must be interpreted as meaning that, in Croatia, notaries, acting within the framework of the powers conferred on them by national law in enforcement proceedings based on an ‘authentic document’, do not fall within the concept of ‘court’ within the meaning of that regulation”.
Source: here