C-117/11 Purple Parking and Airparks Services

Order · Court of Justice · United Kingdom · 19 January 2012

Off-airport parking with a transfer bus as a single supply of parking

What is the case?

Purple Parking and Airparks Services ran car parks near United Kingdom airports but outside the airport perimeter. A customer left the car at the site and was carried by the operator's bus to the terminal, and collected on return. The two elements were priced as one. In the United Kingdom the transport of passengers in vehicles carrying twelve or more people is zero-rated, whereas parking is taxed at the standard rate, so the operators had a direct interest in the transfer being treated as a distinct supply of transport rather than as part of the parking service.

What is the Court asked?

Whether, for the purpose of determining the applicable VAT rate, the parking of a vehicle in an off-airport car park and the carriage of the passengers of that vehicle between the car park and the airport terminal are to be regarded as two separate supplies or as a single supply, and if single, which element determines the treatment.

The Court’s decision

Ruling by reasoned order, the Court held that in circumstances such as those in the main proceedings the parking and the transfer form a single, complex supply of services in which the parking is predominant. The transport is not an end in itself for the customer but the means of better enjoying the parking, so it follows the treatment of the parking service and cannot be carved out to attract the zero rate applicable to passenger transport. A clean application of the single-supply doctrine to a pricing structure built around a favourable rate.

AI-generated and factual. Not an official document: verify against the text below.

Legislation interpreted

Article 28 of Sixth Directive 77/388/EEC Transitional provisions

Subject matter

Sixth Directive · Article 28(2)(a) · Article 28(3)(b) · Exemption of certain transport services · Transaction combining car parking services and the transport of travellers between the car park and an airport · Existence of two separate supplies of services or of a single supply · Principle of fiscal neutrality

Topics

Supply of services · VAT rates · Exemption of certain transport services · Existence of two separate supplies of services or of a single supply · Fiscal neutrality

Record

Court: Court of Justice
Case number: C-117/11
ECLI: ECLI:EU:C:2012:29
Official texts: Order of 19 January 2012 (62011CO0117)
Cite as: Order of 19 January 2012, Purple Parking and Airparks Services, C-117/11, EU:C:2012:29

Order of 19 January 2012

Text as published by the Court on EUR-Lex, CELEX 62011CO0117.

Order of the Court (Seventh Chamber) of 19 January 2012 — Purple Parking and Airparks Services v Commissioners for Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs

(Case C‑117/11)

First subparagraph of Article 104(3) of the Rules of Procedure — Taxation — VAT — Sixth Directive — Article 28(2)(a) — Article 28(3)(b) — Exemption of certain transport services — Transaction combining car parking services and the transport of travellers between the car park and an airport — Existence of two separate supplies of services or of a single supply — Principle of fiscal neutrality

Tax provisions — Harmonisation of laws — Turnover taxes — Common system of value added tax — Supply of services — Transactions comprising several elements — Services consisting of parking vehicles in a car park outside an airport, on the one hand, and carrying passengers between that car park and the airport, on the other — Transaction that must be regarded as a single, complex supply (Council Directives 77/388 and 92/111) (see para 41, operative part 1)

Re:

Operative part

On a proper construction 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 92/111/EEC of 14 December 1992, for the purpose of determining the rate of value added tax applicable, services for the parking of a vehicle in an ‘off-airport’ car park and for the transport of the passengers of that vehicle between that car park and the airport terminal concerned must, in circumstances such as those at issue in the main proceedings, be regarded as a single, complex supply of services in which the parking service is predominant.