Commission of the European Communities v French Republic.
Date: 2001-01-11
21 In that regard, it should be observed, first, that although, as the Court has held, in particular in Case 348/87 Stichting Uitvoering Financiële Acties v Staatssecretaris van Financiën [1989] ECR 1737, paragraph 13, the exemptions referred to in Article 13 of the Sixth Directive are to be interpreted strictly, the Court has also noted, in paragraph 15 of Case C-349/96 Card Protection Plan v Commissioners of Customs and Excise [1999] ECR I-973 (CPP), that those exemptions constitute independent concepts of Community law whose purpose is to avoid divergences in the application of the VAT system from one Member State to another.
22 It must be pointed out, second, that Article 13(A)(1)(b) of the Sixth Directive does not include any definition of the concept of activities closely related to hospital and medical care.
23 As the Advocate General noted in point 23 of his Opinion, that concept does not, however, call for an especially narrow interpretation since the exemption of activities closely related to hospital and medical care is designed to ensure that the benefits flowing from such care are not hindered by the increased costs of providing it that would follow if it, or closely related activities, were subject to VAT.
24 For the purpose of any possible exemption from VAT for the act of transmitting medical samples, it is appropriate to have regard to the purpose for which those samples are taken. Thus, where a duly authorised health-care worker orders, for the purpose of making his diagnosis and with a therapeutic aim, that his patient should undergo an analysis, the transmission of the sample, which logically takes place between the taking of the sample and the analysis itself, must be regarded as closely related to the analysis and must therefore be exempt from VAT (see, as regards services which, since they do not have a therapeutic aim, must be subject to VAT, Case C-384/98 D v W [2000] ECR I-6795, paragraph 19).
26 First, it should be observed that, according to settled case-law, although the introductory sentence of Article 13(A)(1) of the Sixth Directive states that Member States are to lay down the conditions for exemptions in order to ensure the correct and straightforward application of the exemptions and to prevent any possible evasion, avoidance or abuse, those conditions cannot affect the definition of the subject-matter of the exemptions envisaged (see, in particular, Case C-124/96 Commission v Spain [1998] ECR I-2501, paragraphs 11 and 12). From that point of view, the subjection to, or exemption from, VAT of a specific transaction cannot depend on its classification in national law.
27 Second, the Court has held that a service must be regarded as ancillary to a principal service if it does not constitute for customers an aim in itself, but a means of better enjoying the principal service supplied (see CPP, paragraph 30).
28 In the present case, the patient is indifferent as to whether the laboratory which takes the sample also carries out the analysis, or subcontracts it to another laboratory but remains responsible to him for the analysis, or, because of the nature of the analysis at issue, is obliged to send the sample to a specialised laboratory. The obligation, in the last case, to send the sample to a specialised laboratory arises from the need to ensure for the patient that the analysis is as reliable as possible.
29 Moreover, the fact that, according to the French Government, the transmission of the sample constitutes a distinct act does not preclude it from being regarded as closely related to the analysis for the purpose of the Sixth Directive.
30 In those circumstances, the taking of the sample and the transmission of the sample to a specialised laboratory constitute services which are closely related to the analysis, so that they must be treated in the same way as the analysis for fiscal purposes and, accordingly, must not be subject to VAT.