This note reports on the French Supreme Administrative Court request for a preliminary ruling from the ECJ regarding the question of whether or not the French withholding tax on outbound dividends (which provides for the taxation of dividends in the hands of a non-resident parent company, but which grants an exemption to a French-resident parent company) is compatible with the freedom of establishment as set out in the EC Treaty. The case is significant as it refers issues to the ECJ that have not previously been considered.