According
to Hungarian tax legislation, employers may provide

vouchers
or cards to their employees under favorable tax conditions. Employees
may then use these vouchers or cards to obtain a number of goods and services,
by circumventing the additional payments to third parties from which these goods
and services are purchased.

The
five main points of the judgment are as follows:

– the
fact that Hungarian branches of companies established in other
EU Member States cannot issue SZÉP cards;

–
the requirement that, in certain circumstances, SZÉP card issuers take
the form of a Hungarian subsidiary of a parent company incorporated under
Hungarian law, as such their registered place of business must be in
Hungary;

–
the fact that only financial institutions whose registered place of business is
in Hungary are able to fulfil the conditions required of SZÉP card issuers to have
a customer service office in all Hungarian municipalities with a population of more than 35,000;

–
that the above requirement deprives service providers with a registered place
of business in other Member States of their right to provide cross-border
services without establishing their place of business in Hungary;

– that
the issuing of such vouchers is deemed an economic activity and that the
monopoly granted the Magyar Nemzeti Üdülési Alapítvány (Hungarian National
Foundation for Recreation, “HNFR”) with regard to this activity constitutes a
restriction of both the freedom of establishment and the freedom to provide services.