Graphic Procédé v Ministère du Budget, des Comptes publics et de la Fonction publique.
Date: 2010-02-11
14. It must be remembered first of all that the Sixth Directive establishes a common system of VAT based, inter alia, on a uniform definition of taxable transactions (see Case C-255/02 Halifax and Others  [2006] ECR I‑1609, paragraph 48).
15. In that regard, under the Sixth Directive the scope of VAT is very wide in that Article 2 thereof, which concerns taxable transactions, refers not only to imports of goods but also to the supply of goods or services effected for consideration within the territory of the country by a taxable person acting as such (see Halifax and Others , paragraph 49).
16. As regards the term ‘supply of goods’, Article 5(1) of the Sixth Directive states that any transfer of the right to dispose of tangible property as owner constitutes such a supply. In that regard the case-law of the Court states that that term covers any transfer of tangible property by one party who empowers the other party actually to dispose of it as if he were the owner of the property (see Halifax and Others , paragraph 51).
17. As regards the term ‘supply of services’, it is clear from Article 6(1) of the Sixth Directive that it covers any transaction not constituting a supply of goods within the meaning of Article 5 of that directive.
18. According to the Court’s case-law, where a transaction comprises a bundle of elements and acts, regard must be had to all the circumstances in which the transaction in question takes place in order to determine, firstly, if there were two or more distinct supplies or one single supply and, secondly, whether, in the latter case, that single supply is to be regarded as a supply of goods or as a supply of services (see, to that effect, Case C-231/94 Faaborg‑Gelting Linien  [1996] ECR I‑2395, paragraphs 12 to 14; Case C-41/04 Levob Verzekeringen and OV Bank  [2005] ECR I‑9433, paragraph 19; and Case C-111/05 Aktiebolaget NN  [2007] ECR I-2697, paragraph 17).
19. The Court has also held that, taking into account the two facts that, firstly, it follows from Article 2 of the Sixth Directive that every transaction must normally be regarded as distinct and independent and, secondly, a transaction which comprises a single supply from an economic point of view should not be artificially split, so as not to distort the functioning of the VAT system, it is a single supply where two or more elements or acts supplied by the taxable person to the customer are so closely linked that they form, objectively, a single, indivisible economic supply, which it would be artificial to split (see Levob Verzekeringen and OV Bank , paragraphs 20 and 22, and Aktiebolaget NN , paragraphs 22 and 23).
20. In the present case, it must be ascertained whether, having regard to the essential features of the transaction at issue in the main proceedings, the reprographer makes to his customer, being a typical consumer, several distinct principal supplies or a single supply (see, to that effect, Levob Verzekeringen and OV Bank , paragraph 20, and Aktiebolaget , paragraph 20).
24. In order to determine whether a single complex transaction, such as that at issue in the main proceedings, is to be classified as a supply of goods or as a supply of services, it is necessary to identify its predominant elements (see, inter alia, Faaborg-Gelting Linien , paragraphs 12 and 14; Levob Verzekeringen and OV Bank , paragraph 27; and Aktiebolaget NN , paragraph 27). In that regard, it is clear from the case-law that a service must be regarded as ancillary to a principal service if it constitutes for customers not an aim in itself, but a means of better enjoying the principal service supplied (see Aktiebolaget NN , paragraph 28).