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 (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)
Date: 2006-03-25
Institutions: Court of Justice
Subjects: VAT, delivery, distributive trades, interpretation of the law

25.3.2006

EN

Official Journal of the European Union

C 74/1

I

(Information)

COURT OF JUSTICE

COURT OF JUSTICE

JUDGMENT OF THE COURT

(Third Chamber)

of 12 January 2006

in Joined Cases C-354/03, C-355/03 and C-484/03: Refer-
ences 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)

(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.
Judges; M. Poiares
von Bahr (Rapporteur) and U. Lõhmus,
Maduro, Advocate General; L. Hewlett, Principal Administrator,
for the Registrar, gave a judgment on 12 January 2006,
in
which it rules:

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.

(1) OJ C 251 of 18.10.2003.
OJ C 35 of 07.02.2004.

JUDGMENT OF THE COURT

(Second Chamber)

of 19 January 2006

in Case C-547/03 P Asian Institute of Technology (AIT) v
Commission of the European Communities (1)

(Appeal — Asia-Invest Programme — Public call for propo-
sals — Contract — Article 111 of the Rules of Procedure of
the Court of First Instance — Manifest inadmissibility — No
legal interest in bringing proceedings — Article 64 of the
Rules of Procedure of the Court of First Instance — Measures
of organisation of procedure — Request for production of
documents — Parties requested to make written submissions
on certain aspects of the proceedings)

(2006/C 74/02)

(Language of the case: French)

In Case C-547/03 P: appeal under Article 56 of the Statute of
the Court of Justice lodged on 22 December 2003, by Asian
Institute of Technology (AIT), established in Pathumthani