European Union: Court of Justice of European Union issued ruling on interpretation of value added tax of electronically supplied services

On 9 October 2025, the Court of Justice of the European Union issued a ruling on Value Added Tax (VAT) rules for electronically supplied services through application (app) stores and “in-app” purchases made before 1 January 2015. The Court held that Article 28 of Directive 2006/112/EC on VAT applies even when order confirmations name the developer as supplier and include VAT, if the intermediary acted in its own name but on behalf of the developer. Under Article 44, the place of supply is where the intermediary is established, and developers are not liable under Article 203 for VAT shown in such confirmations when services are supplied to non-taxable persons. The Court stated that a developer selling “in-app” purchases through an Irish app store before 2015 would be taxed in Ireland, not Germany, even if confirmations listed the developer as the supplier.