CJEU – Recent Developments in Value Added Tax 2018

S. 51The Role of Marketplaces in Taxing B2C Supplies

Marie Lamensch/Rebecca Millar

1. S. 52Introduction

1.1. The booming development of global e-commerce and the emergence of marketplaces

UNCTAD estimates that global e-commerce sales amounted to $ 25.3 trillion in 2015, with business-to-business (B2B) sales amounting to $ 22.4 trillion and business-to-consumer (B2C) sales amounting to $ 2.9 trillion. B2C e-commerce has not yet reached saturation point and according to available statistics, revenues in that sector are projected to grow to 4.88 trillion US dollars in 2021.

One of the key elements in the development of B2C e-commerce is the emergence of platforms, a new type of intermediary. The traditional roles of an intermediary are to enable matching, to facilitate interaction, and possibly also to reduce costs. It might have been expected that the Internet would have triggered a major disintermediation process because it would provide suppliers with direct access to a global customer base. The reality, however, is that a strong re-intermediation process is occurring. In fact, the development of e-commerce has created the need for new intermediation services, e.g. larger scale distribution proce...