New frontiers in the EU VAT regime for Public Bodies

The regime for public bodies has always been problematic in the overall system of EU VAT. In recent years the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) has handed down rulings leading to unexpected developments in this connection. These rulings cast light on the scope of the economic activity and relevant transactions carried out by public bodies as well as on the activity of bodies controlled and funded by the public sector. The CJEU has ruled that in certain cases bodies established as private companies may be considered ‘other bodies governed by public law’, and narrowed the ‘major distortion of competition’ exception set forth in Article 13 CSVD. These developments indicate a general orientation of the CJEU adapting the provisions in the Directive to the current economic scenario where the distinction between public and private is increasingly difficult to draw.