Court of Justice 15 January 2026, C-603/24 (Stellantis Portugal SA v Autoridade Tributária e Aduaneira.)

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In this Opinion (Case C-603/24, Stellantis Portugal v Autoridade Tributária e Aduaneira), Advocate General Kokott opines that a subsequent adjustment of an intra-group vehicle sale price, contractually agreed as variable and determined by reference to the purchaser's distribution and warranty costs, constitutes a reduction or increase of the taxable amount of the underlying supply under Articles 90 and 73 of Directive 2006/112/EC respectively, and cannot itself be characterised as a 'supply of services for consideration' within the meaning of Article 2(1)(c) of that Directive. The AG distinguishes three scenarios: (i) genuine separate supplies of services creating input/output for profit allocation purposes, which are taxable transactions; (ii) unilateral subsequent adjustments imposed by a tax authority solely for income tax profit-allocation purposes, which are in principle irrelevant for VAT; and (iii) the present case, where a contractually variable purchase price is adjusted post-supply by reference to specific cost parameters, which affects only the taxable amount of the original supply. The AG accordingly proposes that the Portuguese tax authority's characterisation of the price adjustment as consideration for a service supplied by the purchaser to the seller is incompatible with EU VAT law.AI