The ECJ has interpreted the admission to online events
C-532/22 – Westside Unicat | From a VAT perspective, providing admission to entertainment events implies that the service supplied directly enables the consumer to watch the performance.
At the core of this case is an online provider of “adult content,” based in the US, where users can view interactive erotic videos on the internet platform they operate. However, the video recordings were not made in the US but in Romania with the assistance of a specialized taxable person who had the necessary studio and hired performers.
The Romanian company invoiced the American platform operator for the production of the video recordings as a B2B service falling under the general place of supply rule; consequently, it treated the transaction as outside the territorial scope of Romanian VAT law. In contrast, the Romanian tax authority argued that the special rule regarding providing access to entertainment events should have been applied, according to which the transaction should have been subject to VAT in Romania, being the place where the event took place.
The European Court of Justice elucidated in this matter that the activities conducted by the Romanian taxable person in the studio cannot be considered either providing admission to scientific, educational, entertainment, etc., events (live broadcasting of digital content) or a service ancillary to them because the studio did not offer direct viewing opportunities to the viewer, but merely produced the recordings, while the service was provided to the viewer by the American company operating the platform.
