Judgment of the Court (Third Chamber) of 3 May 2012 (reference for a preliminary ruling from the First-Tier Tribunal (Tax Chamber) — United Kingdom) — Lebara Ltd v Commissioners for Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs

(Case C-520/10) (1)

(Taxation - Sixth VAT Directive - Article 2 - Supply of services for consideration - Telecommunications services - Prepaid phonecards displaying information for making international calls - Marketing through a network of distributors)

2012/C 174/11

Language of the case: English

Referring court

First Tier Tribunal (Tax Chamber)

Parties to the main proceedings

Applicant: Lebara Ltd

Defendant: Commissioners for Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs

Re:

Reference for a preliminary ruling — First-Tier Tribunal (Tax Chamber) — Interpretation of Article 2(1) of Sixth Council Directive 77/388/EEC of 17 May 1977 on the harmonisation of the laws of the Member States relating to turnover taxes — Common system of value added tax: uniform basis of assessment (OJ 1977 L 145, p. 1) — Phonecards sold by a taxable person residing in a Member State to a distributor residing in another Member State and sold on by that distributor to persons who use them to make telephone calls — Transaction which can be broken down into several parts — Arrangements for charging value added tax

Operative part of the judgment

Point (1) of Article 2 of Sixth Council Directive 77/388/EEC of 17 May 1977 on the harmonisation of the laws of the Member States relating to turnover taxes — Common system of value added tax: uniform basis of assessment, as amended by Council Directive 2003/92/EC of 7 October 2003, must be interpreted as meaning that a telecommunications services operator which offers telecommunications services consisting in selling to a distributor phonecards which display all the information necessary for making international telephone calls by means of the infrastructure provided by that operator and which are resold by the distributor, in its name and on its own behalf, to end users, either directly or through other taxable persons such as wholesalers or retailers, carries out a supply of telecommunications services for consideration to the distributor. On the other hand, that operator does not carry out a second supply of services for consideration, this time to the end user, where that user, having purchased the phonecard, exercises the right to make telephone calls using the information on the card.

(1)  OJ C 30, 29.1.2011.