In Fast Bunkering Klaipėda v Valstybinė mokesčių inspekcija prie Lietuvos Respublikos finansų ministerijos (C-526/13) (5 March 2015) the Advocate General considered that an exemption could apply to a supply involving two legal transfers of ownership.
Fast Bunkering was registered for VAT in Lithuania and the dispute related to supplies of fuel it had made to vessels used for navigation on the high seas. The orders were not placed by the operators of the vessels but by intermediaries established in various member states. These intermediaries acted in their own name buying the fuel from Fast Bunkering and selling it to the vessel operators; but they never took physical delivery of the fuel.
The issue was therefore whether the Principal VAT Directive art 148 which exempts supplies of fuel to vessels navigating on the high seas could apply to supplies made to intermediaries.
The Advocate General stressed...
