This request for a preliminary ruling was made in the context of a dispute concerning the exclusion of third-country nationals from the benefit of a card granted to families giving the possibility to obtain discounts or reductions in the price of goods and services. By letter of 31 March 2020, ASGI and two other associations asked the family policies department of the Presidency of the Council of Ministers that the regulations relating to the family card be set aside as they excluded beneficiaries of international protection. As their request went unanswered, the applicants brought proceedings before the Tribunal of Milan, the referring court, by means of a special procedure applicable to disputes relating to discrimination.

The referring court asked the CJEU whether Article 11(1)(d) or Article 11(1)(f) of Directive 2003/109 (Long-Term Residents Directive) Article 12 (1)(e) or Article 12(1)(g) of Directive 2011/98 (single application procedure for a combined work and residence permit), Article 14(1)(e), or Article 14(1)(g) of Directive 2009/50 (entry and residence of third-country nationals for the purposes of highly qualified employment) and Article 29 of Directive 2011/95 (recast Qualification Directive) must be interpreted as being opposed to a regulation of a Member State which excludes the nationals of third countries covered by these directives from the benefit of a family card allowing to obtain discounts or reductions when purchasing goods and services provided by public or private entities having concluded an agreement with the government of that Member State.

The court highlighted that to determine, in the first place, whether that exclusion is contrary to the principle of equal treatment as regards the benefits covered by those directives, it must be examined whether the family card comes within one of those benefits.

The court noted that, according to Article 29 of the recast QD, the directive requires that the level of social benefits paid to beneficiaries of international protection by the Member State that granted that protection be the same as that offered to nationals of that Member State. Then, the court held that although the recast QD does not provide any details on the benefits which beneficiaries of social assistance must receive under Article 29 thereof, the concept of social assistance refers to all assistance schemes established by the public authorities, whether at national, regional or local level, to which recourse may be had by an individual who does not have resources sufficient to meet his or her own basic needs and those of his or her family. To reach this conclusion, the court applied by analogy the judgments of Dano (C-333/13, 11 November 2014) and Alimanovic (C-67/14, 15 September 2015). The court concluded that it was for the referring court to determine whether the family card constituted social assistance for the purposes of Article 29 of the recast QD.

On the question of exclusion, the CJEU concluded that the exclusion of beneficiaries of international protection from benefiting from the family card, in so far as it deprives them of access to these goods and services as well as their supply in the same conditions as those enjoyed by Italian nationals, constitutes unequal treatment contrary to EU law.