# C_2006074EN.01000101.xml

| 25.3.2006 | EN | Official Journal of the European Union | C 74/1 |
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25.3.2006

EN

Official Journal of the European Union

C 74/1

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JUDGMENT OF THE COURT

JUDGMENT OF THE COURT

(Third Chamber)

of 12 January 2006

in Joined Cases C-354/03, C-355/03 and C-484/03: References for a preliminary ruling from the High Court of Justice of England and Wales, Chancery Division (United Kingdom) in Optigen Ltd, Fulcrum Electronics Ltd and Bond House Systems Ltd v Commissioners of Customs & Excise
   (1)

Optigen Ltd, Fulcrum Electronics Ltd and Bond House Systems Ltd v Commissioners of Customs & Excise

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(Sixth VAT Directive - Article 2(1), Article 4(1) and (2) and Article 5(1) - Deduction of input tax - Economic activity - Taxable person acting as such - Supply of goods - Transaction forming part of a chain of supply involving a defaulting trader or a trader using an unauthorised VAT number - Carousel fraud)

(2006/C 74/01)

Language of the cases: English

In Joined Cases C-354/03, C-355/03 and C-484/03: references for a preliminary ruling under Article 234 EC from the High Court of Justice of England and Wales, Chancery Division (United Kingdom), made by decisions of 28 July 2003 (C-354/03 and C-355/03) and 27 October 2003 (C-484/03), received at the Court on 18 August 2003 and 19 November 2003 respectively, in the proceedings between Optigen Ltd (C-354/03), Fulcrum Electronics Ltd (C-355/03), Bond House Systems Ltd (C-484/03) and Commissioners of Customs & Excise — the Court (Third Chamber), composed of A. Rosas, President of the Chamber, J. Malenovský, J.-P. Puissochet, S. von Bahr (Rapporteur) and U. Lõhmus, Judges; M. Poiares Maduro, Advocate General; L. Hewlett, Principal Administrator, for the Registrar, gave a judgment on 12 January 2006, in which it rules:

Optigen Ltd

Fulcrum Electronics Ltd

Bond House Systems Ltd

Commissioners of Customs & Excise

Transactions such as those at issue in the main proceedings, which are not themselves vitiated by value added tax fraud, constitute supplies of goods or services effected by a taxable person acting as such and an economic activity within the meaning of Articles 2(1), 4 and 5(1) of Sixth Council Directive 77/388/EEC of 17 May 1977 on the harmonisation of the laws of the Member States relating to turnover taxes — Common system of value added tax: uniform basis of assessment, as amended by Council Directive 95/7/EC of 10 April 1995, where they fulfil the objective criteria on which the definitions of those terms are based, regardless of the intention of a trader other than the taxable person concerned involved in the same chain of supply and/or the possible fraudulent nature of another transaction in the chain, prior or subsequent to the transaction carried out by that taxable person, of which that taxable person had no knowledge and no means of knowledge. The right to deduct input value added tax of a taxable person who carries out such transactions cannot be affected by the fact that in the chain of supply of which those transactions form part another prior or subsequent transaction is vitiated by value added tax fraud, without that taxable person knowing or having any means of knowing.

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(1)  OJ C 251 of 18.10.2003.

1

OJ C 35 of 07.02.2004.

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