Legal Research

ECJ rules record company promo copies not subject to VAT

By scott

The European Court of Justice (ECJ) has ruled that free ’samplers’ / ‘promo copies’ of recordings given to DJ’s and reviewers etc should not be subject to VAT.

Ruling in favour of EMI the court found the terms ?samples? and ?gifts of small value? contained as exceptions within the VAT Directive 77/388/EEC covered the common practice used by record companies. However the court also ruled that this did not preclude a member state fixing a monetary limit, after which point VAT would be applied, such as £50, for gifts made to the same person (which did not include counting an organisation - such as the BBC, or a Radio Station - as ‘a person’) within the course of a 12 month period or forming part of a series or succession of gifts.

I’m not always on the side of the record companies, but I have to say in this instance, I’m totally on their side.

Full post as published by Information Overload on October 04, 2010 (boomark / email).