The answer can be found in article 5b of the VAT Implementing Regulation 282/2011.
Article 5b of the VAT Implementing Regulation provides clarifications on when a taxable person should be considered to facilitate the supply of goods for the purpose of the application of the deemed supplier provision.
The term ‘facilitates’ means the use of an electronic interface to allow a customer and a supplier, offering goods for sale through the electronic interface, to enter into contact, which results in a supply of goods being made through that electronic interface to that customer.
In other words, the sale-purchase from the seller to the customer is realised/concluded with the help of the taxable person operating the electronic interface.
The concept encompasses situations where customers initiate the purchase process or make an offer for purchasing goods and underlying suppliers accept the offer via the electronic interface.
Generally, for e-commerce transactions this is reflected in the actual ordering and the checkout process being carried out by or with the help of the electronic interface.
In addition, “which results in a supply of goods through that electronic interface” means that a transaction is concluded on the electronic interface (website, portal, gateway, marketplace, application program interface (API), or similar means), but it is not determined by the physical delivery of the goods, which
may or may not be arranged/carried out by the taxable person operating the electronic interface.
Article 5b of the VAT Implementing Regulation 282/2011
For the application of Article 14a of Directive 2006/112/EC, the term “facilitates” means the use of an electronic interface to allow a customer and a supplier offering goods for sale through the electronic interface to enter into contact which results in a supply of goods through that electronic interface.
However, a taxable person is not facilitating a supply of goods where all of the following conditions are met:
(a) that taxable person does not set, either directly or indirectly, any of the terms and conditions under which the supply of goods is made;
(b) that taxable person is not, either directly or indirectly, involved in authorising the charge to the customer in respect of the payment made;
(c) that taxable person is not, either directly or indirectly, involved in the ordering or delivery of the goods.
Article 14a of Directive 2006/112/EC shall not apply to a taxable person who only provides any of the following:
(a) the processing of payments in relation to the supply of goods;
(b) the listing or advertising of goods;
(c) the redirecting or transferring of customers to other electronic interfaces where goods are offered for sale,
without any further intervention in the supply.
