Preliminary rulings on VAT: transfer to the General Court

The Court of Justice of the European Union, in charge of ensuring the correct interpretation and application of primary and secondary EU law in the EU, consists of two courts, the Court of Justice ("CJEU") and the General Court ("GC"). Under article 267 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union ("TFEU"), the CJEU has jurisdiction to give preliminary rulings concerning questions raised before any court or tribunal of a Member State on the interpretation of the Treaties and the validity and interpretation of acts of the institutions, bodies, offices or agencies of the Union.

Due to the structural increase in litigation before the European Union courts in recent years (see Press Release No 59/24 concerning this matter), a partial transfer has been approved (in accordance with article 256.3 TFEU) from the CJEU to the GC of preliminary ruling jurisdiction concerning certain matters to ensure a better balance in the workload between the two courts.

Specifically, Regulation (EU, Euratom) 2024/2019 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 11 April 2024 (published on August 12, 2024, in the Official Journal of the European Union) amended the Statute of the Court of Justice of the European Union and transferred to the GC the jurisdiction to give preliminary rulings in the following specific areas: 

• The common system of value added tax
• Excise duties
• The Customs Code
• The tariff classification of goods under the Combined Nomenclature
• Compensation and assistance to passengers in the event of denied boarding or of delay or cancellation of transport services
• The system for greenhouse gas emission allowance trading

According to the information published on judicial statistics, preliminary rulings on these matters represent approximately 20% of all cases brought before the CJEU (totalling 518 in 2023, of which 32 came from the courts of Spain and 13 from the courts of Portugal).

This transfer of jurisdiction will not be immediate, as it will affect requests for preliminary rulings made on these matters from October 1, 2024. However, for reasons of safety and speed, the courts making the requests for preliminary rulings from that date onwards will not decide which of the courts should handle the case. Rather, these requests must be sent to the CJEU, which will decide, in view of the matters involved, whether to transfer the case to the GC.

This transfer of jurisdiction, along with other amendments to the procedural rules set out in the Statute of the Court of Justice of the European Union, has also resulted in amendments to the Rules of procedure of the CJEU and the Rules of procedure of the GC, published in the Official Journal of the European Union on August 12, 2024.

Further information on this matter can be found in Press Release No 125/24 and Press Release No 26/24 of the CJEU.