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4.7.2009   

EN

Official Journal of the European Union

C 153/30

Reference for a preliminary ruling from Court of Appeal (United Kingdom) made on 14 May 2009 — Her Majesty's Commissioners of Revenue and Customs v Axa UK plc

(Case C-175/09)

2009/C 153/59

Language of the case: English

Referring court

Court of Appeal

Parties to the main proceedings

Applicant: Her Majesty's Commissioners of Revenue and Customs

Defendant: Axa UK plc

Questions referred

1.

What are the characteristics of an exempt service that has ‘the effect of transferring funds and entail[s] changes in the legal and financial situation’?

In particular:

(a)

Is the exemption applicable to services which would not otherwise have to be performed by any of the financial institutions which (i) make a debit to one account, (ii) make a corresponding credit to another account, or (iii) perform an intervening task between (i) or (ii)?

(b)

Is the exemption applicable to services which do not include the carrying out of tasks of making a debit to one account and a corresponding credit to another account, but which may, where a transfer of funds results, be seen as having been the cause of that transfer?

2.

In the light of SDC, is a trader (which is not itself a bank) performing an exempt service in accordance with Article 13B(d)(3) where the tasks he carries out for his client (1) comprise the collection, processing and onward payment of monies due to the client from a third party; in particular, the tasks of:

(a)

transmitting information to the third party's bank calling for a payment from the third party's bank account to the trader's own bank account, in reliance on a standing authorisation given by that third party to the bank (pursuant to the ‘Direct Debit’

scheme); and subsequently, if the bank makes that payment,

(b)

giving an instruction to his own bank to transfer funds from his account to the client's bank account but (2) do not include tasks of (a) making a debit to one bank account, (b) making a corresponding credit to another bank account, or (c) performing any intervening task between (a) and (b)?

3.

Does it make a difference to the answer to Question 2 (above) if the service described in that question is performed by transmitting the information to an electronic system which then automatically communicates with the relevant bank, even if the transmission of the information may not always result in a transfer being made (e.g. because the third party has cancelled his standing authorisation to his bank or does not have sufficient funds in his account)?