Comments on ECJ C-249/22: Austria may levy VAT in connection with public broadcasting activities

BM, a broadcast subscriber registered with GIS, applied for reimbursement of VAT it had paid on programme fees.
However, the application was rejected as the Austrian court deemed it different from the Český rozhlas case due to the existence of a civil-law contractual relationship between the broadcaster and subscriber under Austrian law.
The programmes are encoded and require a receiving module, which creates a legal relationship between the subscriber and broadcasting organisation.
Prior to EU accession, Austrian tax law allowed VAT to be levied on services supplied by broadcasting companies that collected licence fees.
The CJEU ruled that Austria can subject to VAT an activity of the public service broadcaster financed by a mandatory statutory fee and paid for by any person with a radio or television set in the terrestrial broadcasting area, regardless of whether it falls under ‘services supplied for consideration’.