Case C-520/14, ECLI:EU:C:2016:334 – Gemeente Borsele; C-263/15, ECLI:EU:C:2016:392 – Lajvér; C-11/15, ECLI:EU:C:2016:470 – Český rozhlas on the concept of consideration for the supply of services and on the concept of economic activity by public bodies and entities receiving public funding

Abstract

Three recent judgments by the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU), which followed references for a preliminary ruling according to Article 267 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union (TFEU), deal with the consideration for a supply of services under Article 2(c) of the VAT Directive. Two of the cases also discuss the concept of economic activity in the sense of Article 9 of the VAT Directive. In Gemeente Borsele, which is the most remarkable of the three cases, the Court had to decide on a local community which organises public transportation of pupils to school. It held that the municipality provided a supply of services when it passed on a share of the costs from contracts with private transportation companies to some of the parents. That said, the Court found that the municipality did not necessarily carry out an economic activity. In Lajvér, the Court decided that where an entity receives public funding, comparatively small sums of money may constitute a consideration for a supply of services in the sense of Article 2(c) VAT Directive. By contrast, in Český rozhlas, the Court found that this was not the case for mandatory licence fees for public broadcasting.