The case concerned an applicant, TO who was housed in a temporary accommodation centre because he benefited from the material reception conditions laid down by Legislative Decree No 142/2015 being an asylum seeker. The applicant verbally and physically assaulted police officers in a train station, together with another asylum applicant and failed to submit observation to the Prefecture on the incident. Consequently, the Prefecture of Florence decided to withdraw his material reception conditions on basis of Article 14(3) and Article 23(1)(e) of Legislative Decree No 142/2015.

The appeal of TO was successful and the Regional Administrative Court of Toscana annulled the withdrawal decision by considering that Article 23(1)(e) of Legislative Decree No 142/2015 was contrary to EU law, as interpreted by the CJEU in its judgment of 12 November 2019, Zubair Haqbin (Afghanistan) v Belgium, Federal agency for the reception of asylum seekers (Federaal Agentschap voor de opvang van asielzoekers) (C‑233/18) in so far as that provision provides for the withdrawal of material reception conditions as the only possible sanction in factual circumstances such as those in the main proceedings.

The Ministry of the Interior brought an appeal against the Regional Administrative Court decision and the Council of State decided to stay the proceedings and to refer questions to the CJEU for a preliminary ruling on the interpretation of the Article 20(4) of recast Reception Conditions Directive when applying to seriously violent behaviour engaged in outside the accommodation centre. In the second part of its question, the Italian court asked, in essence, whether Article 20(4) and (5) of RCD must be interpreted as precluding the imposition on an applicant for international protection, who has engaged in seriously violent behaviour against public officials, of a sanction consisting of a withdrawal of material reception conditions, within the meaning of Article 2(f) and (g) of that directive.

The CJEU ruled that “1. Article 20(4) of Directive 2013/33/EU of the European Parliament and of the Council of 26 June 2013 laying down standards for the reception of applicants for international protection must be interpreted as applying to seriously violent behaviour engaged in outside an accommodation centre.

2.      Article 20(4) and (5) of Directive 2013/33 must be interpreted as precluding the imposition, on an applicant for international protection who has engaged in seriously violent behaviour against public officials, of a sanction consisting in the withdrawal of material reception conditions, within the meaning of Article 2(f) and (g) of that directive, relating to housing, food or clothing, in so far as it would have the effect of depriving the applicant of the possibility of meeting his or her most basic needs The imposition of other sanctions under Article 20(4) of the directive must, in all circumstances, comply with the conditions laid down in Article 20(5) thereof, including those concerning the principle of proportionality and respect for human dignity.