CELEX: C2003/055/18
Language: en
Date: 2003-03-08 00:00:00
Title: Case C-463/02: Action brought on 23 December 2002 by Commission of the European Communities against the Kingdom of Sweden

C 55/10                 EN                        Official Journal of the European Union                                            8.3.2003
Article 20 of Legislative Decree No 18/99 relates to contracts                  failed to fulfil its obligations under Article 11 of the Sixth
of employment under various organisational arrangements or                      Council Directive 77/388/EC ( 2) of 17 May 1977 on the
contractual conditions in force on 19 November 1998. Such                       harmonisation of the laws of the Member States relating
contracts concern staff working for users which carry out self-                 to turnover taxes — Common system of value added tax:
handling services, which are different from those defined in                    uniform basis of assessment; and
the directive. Those contracts remain in force and unchanged
until expiry; however, they may not be for longer than 6 years.
In actual fact, undertakings with ‘various organisational                 2.    Order Sweden to pay the costs.
arrangements’ are in practice authorised to act as self-handling
operators alongside other self-handling operators and service
suppliers.
The directive provides a clear definition for groundhandling              Pleas in law and main arguments
services operators — groundhandling for third parties and
users which carry out self-handling operations. Entities which
do not fulfil the ‘self-handling’ criteria laid down in Article 2(f)
may only operate groundhandling services for third parties.               The three conditions for inclusion of a subsidy in the taxable
Furthermore, Article 7(2) and Article 11(2) of the directive lay          amount are satisfied. It is clear from Regulation No 603/95
down the specific procedures to follow when appointing self-              that only the undertaking which processes fresh fodder can be
handling operators and suppliers of groundhandling services               granted aid and not producers of fresh fodder, and that the
for third parties. In light of the foregoing considerations,              processing undertaking both enters into a sales agreement
Article 20 appears to infringe those obligations.                         with undertakings which consume dried fodder (supply of
                                                                          goods) and processing agreements with producers of fresh
                                                                          fodder (supply of services). In the present case there is no
( 1) OJ 1996 L 272, p. 36.                                                doubt that the intervention body which pays the aid in
( 2) OJ 1977 L 61, p. 26.                                                 accordance with Regulation No 603/95 is a third person in
( 3) OJ 1998 L 201, p. 88.                                                relation to the processing undertaking and the buyer and that
( 4) OJ 2001 L 82, p. 16.                                                 this intervention takes place in accordance with a procedure
                                                                          for the award of public subsidies.
                                                                          Article 11 A point 1(a) of the Sixth Directive would be
                                                                          interpreted excessively narrowly if only types of aid which are
                                                                          calculated on the basis of the product price are included in the
                                                                          taxable amount for VAT. By its general reference to ‘subsidies
Action brought on 23 December 2002 by Commission                          directly linked to the price of [the taxable] supplies’, the
of the European Communities against the Kingdom of                        Community legislature actually intended to include in the
                              Sweden                                      taxable amount for VAT all aid which is directly linked to the
                                                                          price of the goods or services, ie the subsidies which directly
                                                                          influence the size of the supplier’s remuneration. Those
                          (Case C-463/02)                                 subsidies must, in turn, be directly linked to or have a causal
                                                                          connection with precisely indicated or quantifiable supplies of
                                                                          goods or services, ie the aid paid, if and to the extent that the
                           (2003/C 55/18)                                 goods or services are actually sold on the market. That is why
                                                                          the subsidy has a direct influence on the product’s sale price
                                                                          and that clearly shows the underlying idea that subsidies
                                                                          should be included in the taxable amount for VAT, on the
                                                                          basis of a non-restrictive interpretation of Article 11 A
An action against the Kingdom of Sweden was brought                       point 1(a) of the Sixth Directive and in accordance with the
before the Court of Justice of the European Communities on                general purpose of the article, namely taxation of all the
23 December 2002 by the Commission of the European                        remuneration paid in whole or in part by a person, no matter
Communities, represented by E. Traversa and K. Simonsson,                 who, and which is actually received by the supplier as a
acting as Agents, with an address for service in Luxembourg.              consequence of the sale of the goods or services.
The Commission claims that the Court should:
                                                                          (1 ) OJ L 63, 21.3.1995, p. 1.
                                                                          (2 ) OJ L 145, 13.6.1977, p. 1.
1.    Declare that, by failing to levy value added tax on the
      amount of aid paid under Council Regulation (EC)
      No 603/95 ( 1) of 21 February 1995 on the common
      organisation of the market in dried fodder, Sweden has