- Case Background: Keesing Deutschland sought to apply a reduced VAT rate of 7% to its “Sudoku-Variants Spezial” booklets, which primarily contained printed sudoku puzzles. The German tax authorities contested this, arguing the booklets lacked a ‘qualified text’ and should be classified under heading 4911 instead.
- CJEU’s Interpretation: The Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) emphasized that the classification should be based on the objective characteristics of the goods, noting that various language versions of EU law must be interpreted together. It recognized that the term “printed matter” includes all types of characters, not just letters.
- Conclusion: The CJEU ruled that tariff heading 4902 of the Combined Nomenclature (CN) includes Keesing’s booklets, confirming that they are eligible for the reduced VAT rate, as they constitute printed matter containing numeric puzzles and do not require a predominance of textual content.
Source BTW jurisprudentie
See also
- Join the Linkedin Group on ECJ/CJEU/General Court VAT Cases, click HERE
- VATupdate.com – Your FREE source of information on ECJ VAT Cases
- Podcasts & briefing documents: VAT concepts explained through ECJ/CJEU cases on Spotify
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