Sale of electricity through a network of electric car charging points
European UnionA German company supplied electric car users access to a network of charging points throughout Sweden. The card enabled users not only to charge their cars but also access real-time information regarding availability and prices at the charging points.
The charging points were operated by third parties that would, each month, charge the German company for the electricity consumed by the users. The German company would, in turn, issue a monthly invoice to the users for the electricity consumed as well as for the use of their network.
Two questions were raised to the court. First, whether the sale of electricity was a sale of goods from a VAT perspective and, secondly, whether such supply was made directly from the charging point operator to the user or from the charging point operator to the German company and from the German company to the user.
After answering the first question positively, the Court held that the transaction should be viewed, from a VAT perspective as a deemed supply from the charging point operator to the German company and from the German company to the user, even though only the user (and not the German company) could choose the quantity, time and place where recharging their car.
Key takeaway
This judgment is an important decision regarding the commissionaire fiction under EU VAT law. According to the CJEU, a taxable person acting in their own name but on behalf of another person providing services to a third-party beneficiary, is deemed to have received and supplied the services themselves, irrespective of the fact that the use and enjoyment of the service is at the sole discretion of that beneficiary.
