Taxation: Commission refers France and Luxembourg to the Court of Justice over reduced VAT rates on ebooks

Brussels, 22-2-2013 — /europawire.eu/ — The European Commission has decided to refer France and Luxembourg to the Court of Justice of the European Union for applying reduced rates of VAT to ebooks. EU law is very clear on which goods and services are eligible for a reduced VAT rate. The provision of ebooks is an electronically provided service and as such cannot benefit from a reduced rate.

Failure to comply with this legislation by France and Luxembourg results in serious distortions of competition to the detriment of traders from other EU Member States. This goes against the basic principle of European tax policy: fair competition within the internal market. The effects of such unfair competition are felt in Member States that apply the VAT Directive correctly. Several Ministers of Finance and representatives of both the paper and epublishing industries have voiced their concern on this subject and have pointed out to the European Commission the negative effect on sales of books on their domestic markets.

Commissioner Šemeta, responsible for taxation said: ‘Questions concerning the tax treatment of physical books and ebooks must certainly be tackled. And this is exactly what the Commission is doing as part of the wider review of reduced VAT rates. However, in the meantime, the Member States must play fair. Infringement of the VAT rules for ebooks distorts the single market and runs counter to the fundamental EU principle of fair tax competition.’

One of the guiding principles of the ongoing revision of VAT rates is that similar goods and services should be subject to VAT at the same rates and that technological progress should be taken into account. The Commission is to make proposals by the end of 2013 under the new VAT strategy and the entry into force of the rules on VAT on e-services from 2015 will put an end to the unequal treatment of ebooks and paper books. Meanwhile, the European Commission is taking its role of guardian of the Treaties seriously by enforcing the rules of the Union.

Background

The reason behind the decision to refer the matter to the Court is the failure by France and Luxembourg to bring their legislation into line following the Commission’s reasoned opinion of 24 October 2012.

More information on the case is available at: IP/12/740 and MEMO/12/794.

For press releases on infringement proceedings in the areas of taxation and customs see:

http://ec.europa.eu/taxation_customs/common/infringements/infringement_cases/index_en.htm

For the most up-to-date general information on infringement proceedings initiated against Member States, see: http://ec.europa.eu/eu_law/infringements/infringements_en.htm

For more information on EU infringement procedures, see MEMO/12/12

And on infringements in February MEMO/13/122