Court of Justice (Grand Chamber) 28 February 2023, C-695/20 (Fenix International Limited v Commissioners for Her Majesty's Revenue and Customs.)

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The Court of Justice (Grand Chamber) ruled on the validity of Article 9a(1) of Council Implementing Regulation (EU) No 282/2011, which establishes a presumption that a taxable person taking part in the supply of electronically supplied services through a telecommunications network, interface, or portal acts in its own name but on behalf of the service provider for VAT purposes. The decisive legal issue was whether the Council exceeded its implementing powers under Article 397 of Directive 2006/112/EC and Article 291(2) TFEU by supplementing or amending Article 28 of the VAT Directive, which creates a legal fiction treating intermediaries acting in their own name as both recipient and supplier of services. The Court held that Article 9a(1) merely clarifies and gives concrete expression to Article 28 of the VAT Directive in the specific context of electronically supplied services, complies with the essential general aims of that directive, and does not supplement or amend its normative content, thereby confirming the provision's validity.AI