Annulment of Decision on ORF Program Fee: Case of B M in W vs. GIS

• The Administrative Court has made a decision on November 16, 2023.
• The case involves a revision by B M in W against the decision of the Federal Administrative Court regarding the ORF program fee.
• The court has ruled that the decision is unlawful due to a violation of procedural rules.
• The court has ordered the government to reimburse the revision applicant with expenses amounting to €1,346.40 within two weeks.
• The revision applicant is registered as a radio participant at GIS Gebühren Info Service GmbH in Vienna.
• The applicant has paid VAT on the ORF program fee from October 1, 2013, to October 31, 2018.
• The applicant requested a refund of the VAT, claiming that it was unlawfully paid.
• The GIS rejected the request, leading the applicant to file a complaint with the Federal Administrative Court.
• The court dismissed the complaint, stating that the EU Court of Justice’s ruling in the case of Ceský rozhlas does not apply to Austria.
• The court explained that the ORF program fee is different from the Czech radio fee and is based on a contractual relationship between the ORF and radio participants.

Source: ris.bka.gv.at

See also

• C-11/15 (Český rozhlas) – Public broadcasting activities by Czech Radio outside scope of VAT

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Note that this post was (partially) written with the help of AI. It is always useful to review the original source material, and where needed to obtain (local) advice from a specialist.

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