Luxembourg, 23/01/2001 (Agence Europe) - Following a series of rulings concerning cases brought by the European Commission against Member States and all of which it won (see EUROPE of 20 January, p.16), the Court of Justice has ruled in cases referred to it by national courts in view of securing its interpretation of European law.
In 1995 and 1996, Lindopark was exonerated from paying VAT, which it disputed as it could not then deduct the tax from its related commercial activities. The State considered that golf was a sporting activity and, as such, exonerated from VAT by the European directive and that Lindopark was also exonerated for all goods and services it offered in the complex appertaining to the course.
The Court of Justice considers that: a) the Swedish law implementing the European directive was too general as it made no distinction between the actual sport (golf course), exonerated from VAT, and other commercial services; b) Sweden was wrong in applying it; c) it was financial liable to the company for the incorrect application of a European directive, and that in virtue of the famous "Brasserie du Pecheur" and "Factortame" rulings; d) the provisions of the sixth directive were sufficiently clear and precise for an individual or a company to be able to use it against a Member State before a national court.
The legal experts point out that the local court of Solna had demonstrated a good grasp of European law by itself applying all these principles and sentencing the State to paying SEK 500,000 in compensation together with interests.
Worth noting that, since 1 January 1997, the lack of a distinction between sporting activities and commercial activities has been abolished in Swedish la.
The Verwaltungsgerichtshof, the Austrian administrative court, in Vienna, wanted to know whether P.P. Handels GmbH, in receivership, was nevertheless subject to the minimum tax on capitals companies whereas it had no revenue in a given year (1996).
The Court's second chamber, presided over by Vassilios Skouris answered yes: in virtue of the 1969 European directive on indirect taxation on capitals companies, Austria may collect this minimum tax, which does not meet the definition of a tax prohibited by the directive (this tax has no link with the company's registration on the register of companies).
The Magistrate's Court of Nottingham has to deal with a criminal affair in which a coach company and its drivers are being prosecuted for having infringed European legislation on the tachograph. They are accused of not having manually written down on their work time sheets the time it took to go to fetch the company's coach (four hours in one of the cases).
Antonio La pergola and his fifth chamber replied that these time lapses should also be recorded on the tachograph. The Magistrate's Court will therefore be able to prosecute Skills Motor Coaches Ltd.
In addition, the sixth chamber and its president, Claus Gulmann issued two rulings in which it sentences the Italian comp[any Tecnologie Vetroresina to refund the European Commission the sums the latter paid for research projects. In a first case, the Commission accused Vetrosina of not having forwarded documents proving that the Italian company had paid the sums to Brunel University in England, as it was obliged to do by contract. In the second case, the Commission accused the same company of not having presented - or having done so belatedly - certain reports and work on a research project with another university.
The Court of Justice was also referred this case in virtue of the "arbitration" clause, provided for in the contract in case of litigation.