3.8.1 No consumption, no taxation

The CJEU has ruled that there is no taxable supply of goods or services if there is no consumption as envisaged in the Union VAT system, for instance if the person paying the consideration does not acquire goods or services for its own use but acts in the common interest.1 In those circumstances, the transaction does not entail any benefit that would enable the person paying the consideration to be considered a consumer of a supply. The transaction in question does not therefore constitute a taxable supply. The CJEU later specified that for an undertaking to be covered by the common system of VAT it must indeed imply consumption. If an undertaking does not entail for identifiable persons any benefit that would enable them to be considered to be consumers of a service, its transaction cannot be classified as a supply within the meaning of the EU VAT Directive.2