Opinion of advocate general Sharpston in joined cases Commission v Spain, Poland, Italy, Czech Republic, Greece, France, Finland and Portugal on the special VAT scheme for travel agents.
In this series of infringement actions, the Commission takes issue with an interpretation of Directive 2006/112 under which eight Member States consider that the special VAT margin scheme for travel agents set out in Articles 306 to 310 of that directive applies regardless of whether the customer is actually the traveller or not. On the basis of the terminology used in some language versions of the provisions in question, that is referred to as ‘the customer approach'. The Commission asserts that, under the legislation as it stands (and in accordance with the practice in the remaining Member States), the margin scheme applies only where the customer is the traveller. Its interpretation is referred to, on the basis of the terminology in other language versions, as ‘the traveller approach'.
Sharpston is of the opinion that the term may be interpreted so as to extend to customers other than the physical persons who actually enjoy the travel or holiday services purchased from a travel agent (or, as the Commission suggests, than those who buy for the benefit of such persons), and indeed so as to include other travel agents who will then sell the services on.
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