Tax & Legal

In its judgment published today, the European Court of Justice held that the operator of an online marketplace is responsible for the processing of personal data contained in advertisements published on its platform. The operator must identify, before publication, advertisements that contain sensitive data and verify that the advertiser is actually the person whose data appears in such an advertisement or that the advertiser has the explicit consent of that person.

The Supreme Tax Court decided that voucher codes for use in the X network - regardless of the distribution channel - are so-called single-purpose vouchers and their transfer is subject to German VAT because the place of performance is in Germany, and the amount of VAT is already determined at the time of issue based on the country code of the user accounts.

In April 2024, the tax authorities commented on the VAT implications of online event services. This administrative circular has now been revoked and replaced by a revised circular issued most recently by the Ministry of Finance (MoF). The VAT Act Application Ordinance was adjusted accordingly.

In a request for a preliminary ruling from the Supreme Tax Court the European Court of Justice was asked to comment on the classification and VAT liability regarding the marketing of prepaid cards or voucher codes used to purchase digital content in an online shop. Specifically, the focus was on the distinction between single-purpose vouchers and multi-purpose vouchers.

In a current judgement the European Court of Justice (ECJ) held that the Council of the European Union did not exceed the limits of its implementation powers in specifying that the operator of a platform is presumed to be the supplier of the services provided.

On 22 March 2021, the Council of the European Union adopted an EU Directive expanding the scope of automatic exchange of information to digital platform operators and amending existing provisions on administrative cooperation in the field of taxation (“DAC7”).