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31.10.2025

Tax & Financial Standards New Judgments of the ECJ For October 2025

Tax & Financial Standards New Judgments of the ECJ For October 2025

October

С-535/24 of 2 October 2025

Value added tax  — Supply of services for consideration — Supply of services free of charge that are to be treated as a supply of services for consideration — Debt recovery — Debt recovery in favour of a third party — Concept of „supply of services“

Key aspects of the decision in the economic range:

Actions taken by a creditor to recover a debt where those actions were taken without authority or mandate from the debtor may not be classified as a ‘supply of services for consideration’ and are not to be treated in the same way as that concept for the purposes of the VAT Directive.
Concept of „supply of services“.
Proceedings, concerning a tax assessment notice in relation to value added tax.

С-80/24 of 9 October 2025

Credit agreements for consumers — Assignment to a third party by a consumer of his or her claim against a bank — Unfair terms in consumer contracts — Examination by a national court of its own motion of the unfairness of the terms in a claim assignment agreement which is not subject to an ongoing dispute before that court

Key aspects of the decision in the economic range:

Assignment of the consumer’s claim against a banking institution. Standing of the assignee. Review by the national court of its own motion of the unfairness of the clauses of the assignment agreement. A national court is not required to examine of its own motion the unfairness of a term in a claim assignment agreement concluded by a consumer where the dispute between the assignee company and a seller does not concern that assignment agreement, but the consumer’s claim against that seller or supplier.
Proceedings, concerning the claim of a consumer against bank.

С-101/24 of 9 October 2025

Value added tax — Taking part in a supply of services — Place of supply of services — VAT entered on an invoice — Electronically supplied services — App store – ‘In-app’ purchases

Key aspects of the decision in the economic range:

Commissioning of services. Entering VAT on an invoice. Supply of services by electronic means to non-taxable end users residing in the territory of the European Union by a developer of mobile applications established in a Member State through a marketplace for applications operated by an entity established in another Member State.
Proceedings, concerning the imposition of value added tax on services supplied by a company during the period from 2012 to 2014.

С-232/24 of 23 October 2025

Value added tax — Taxable transactions — Exemption relating to the granting of credit — Exemption relating to the granting of credit — Debt collection — Trade factoring — Invoice factoring — Concept of ‘debt collection’

Key aspects of the decision in the economic range:

Treatment for value added tax purposes of commissions and fees charged by a company in connection with its factoring activities. Trade factoring. Consideration for a single and indivisible service of ‘debt collection’, subject to VAT. Concept of ‘debt collection’.
Proceedings relating to the treatment for value added tax purposes of various fees and commissions charged by the company A in connection with factoring activities carried out by it.

С-234/24 of 23 October 2025

Value added tax — Refund of VAT to taxable persons not established in the Member State of refund — Principal supply and ancillary supply — Artificial splitting of a single supply — No dispatch of the object of the supply

Key aspects of the decision in the economic range:

Independent transactions or a single, complex intra-Community supply. Refund the VAT charged on the supply of equipment to a taxable person established in a Member State other than the Member State of purchase of those goods, where that equipment has not physically left the territory of the Member State of its supplier.
Proceedings concerning the right to a refund of the value added tax charged on the supply of equipment.

С-267/24 of 23 October 2025

Agriculture — Direct support schemes — Exceptions from the application of administrative penalties — Incorrect aid application — Withdrawal of such an application — Notification to the competent national authorities — Administrative penalties in cases of over-declaration of areas — Penalties under Article 19a of Delegated Regulation No 640/2014

Key aspects of the decision in the economic range:

Financing, management and monitoring of the common agricultural policy. National legislation which requires aid applicants to inform the competent national authority of any error in or amendment to the aid application. The application of administrative penalties in the event of an incorrect aid application or payment claim requires the competent national authority to show that the conditions are not satisfied, which is to be done, subject to the principles of equivalence and effectiveness and the principles governing the assessment of the probative value of the evidence adduced.
Proceedings between K, a company incorporated under Bulgarian law, and the National ‘Agriculture’ Fund, Bulgaria, concerning the latter’s decision to reduce the amount of financial aid applied for by K under several aid schemes and measures for area-related direct payments, and to impose penalties for over-declaration of areas.

С-466/24 of 23 October 2025

Direct payment for farmers — Areas at the farmers’ disposal — Legal basis for use of those areas — Rules for registration of that legal basis — Areas declared under aid schemes greater than those for which a legal basis was registered — Administrative penalties in cases of over-declaration of areas — Penalties under Article 19a of Regulation (EU) No 640/2014

Key aspects of the decision in the economic range:

Common agricultural policy. Administration and control system and conditions for refusal or withdrawal of payments and administrative penalties applicable to direct payments. A national practice whereby a farmer may be denied entitlement to the payment of aid in respect of areas for the use of which that farmer has concluded a contract, where that contract, as the legal basis for use of those areas, has not been registered in the computerised database.
Proceedings between жду LQ and National ‘Agriculture’ Fund, Bulgaria) (‘the DFZ’) concerning the latter’s decision to reduce the amount of financial aid applied by LQ under several aid schemes and measures for area-related direct payments, and to impose penalties for over-declaration of areas.

С-469/24 of 23 October 2025

Performance of the package travel — Lack of conformity of the services provided — Circumstances precluding the traveller’s entitlement to compensation — Lack of conformity of the services provided that is attributable to a third party unconnected with the provision of the travel services included in the package travel contract and is unforeseeable or unavoidable — Proving guilt — Full refund despite partial supply of services — Concepts of ‘attributable to a third party’ and ‘unavoidable and extraordinary circumstances’

Key aspects of the decision in the economic range:

A provision of national law which provides that, where the lack of conformity of package travel services is attributable to a third party unconnected with the provision of those services, the travel organiser must demonstrate that that lack of conformity is due to the fault of that third party in order to be able to exonerate itself from liability towards the traveller. Even if a traveller has been provided with some of the services supplied by a travel organiser, the appropriate price reduction to which that traveller is entitled in the event of a lack of conformity of those services may correspond to a full refund of the price of the package holiday.
Concepts of ‘attributable to a third party’ and ‘unavoidable and extraordinary circumstances’.
Proceedings, concerning a claim for a refund and for compensation for damages made by travellers following a package holiday which did not meet the terms agreed between the parties.

С-744/23 of 23 October 2025

Value added tax — Transactions subject to VAT — Supply of services for consideration — Taxable person — Legal assistance provided free of charge by a lawyer to a party in legal proceedings — Payment of that lawyer’s fees by the unsuccessful opposing party

Key aspects of the decision in the economic range:

Pro bono legal advice given by a lawyer registered as a taxable person liable for VAT. Statutory minimum fee payable by the unsuccessful party in the event of a successful outcome. The VAT Directive must be interpreted as meaning that the representation of a party in court by a lawyer constitutes a supply of services for consideration in circumstances where that supply is provided free of charge, but where the legislation of the Member State concerned provides that the opposing party, in the event that the latter is ordered to pay the costs, is also ordered to pay that lawyer fees.
Proceedings concerning an application made by T.’s lawyer seeking that F. pay him, in addition to his fees, the value added tax calculated on the amount of those fees.

С-760/23 of 23 October 2025

Energy — Promotion of energy efficiency — Transparency and accuracy of accounting for the consumption of thermal energy by the common parts — Failure to take into account the actual amount of heat supplied to each dwelling  — Algorithm for allocating the cost of thermal energy consumption in co-owned buildings

Key aspects of the decision in the economic range:

Co-owned building. Национална правна уредба, съгласно която собственикът на апартамент в сграда - етажна собственост, е длъжен да заплати разходите, които са му начислени за топлинната енергия и доставяне на топлинна енергия в сградата, включително когато стълбищата и коридорите на сградата не са оборудвани с радиатори, в размер на част, пропорционална на отопляемия обем на своя апартамент.
Proceedings, between a company supplying thermal energy, and OZ, a natural person, concerning an action for payment of bills for the supply of thermal energy for the dwelling owned by OZ in a co-owned building connected to a district heating system.