VAT Treatment of Compensation for Unlicensed Public Use of Protected Works: EU Court Ruling

• Compensation for unauthorized public use of protected works is considered a taxable supply for VAT purposes.
• Rights holders provide a service for consideration when their works are used without a license, regardless of their ability to prevent the use.
• The VAT treatment applies even if the compensation is set by national law and may include surcharges up to three times the usual license fee.

Source: datenbank.nwb.de

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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