ECJ - Recent Developments in Direct Taxation 2012

S. 217UK: Felixstowe Dock and Railway Company and others (“Felixstowe Dock”) Pending Case C-80/12

S. 2191. Introduction

The UK’s group relief scheme has proved to be a moderately fertile source of litigation taken before the Court of Justice of the European Union. The first examination and ruling on the provisions as they applied to consortia was in 1998, ICI. Two further examinations have been made, first in 2005, Marks & Spencer, and secondly, in September 2012, Philips Electronics. These two examinations concerned different provisions in the legislation. Felixstowe Dock will be the fourth occasion on which the CJEU will examine the provisions and this examination will, like in ICI, concern the provisions relating to consortia.

The question referred to the CJEU by the UK First-tier Tribunal (Tax Chamber) was one of three questions put to it at the appeal hearing. All three questions related to claims for group relief by UK resident members of the Hutchison Whampoa Ltd group of companies (‘HWL group’) made against the losses of Hutchison 3G UK Limited (‘consortium company’).

Hutchison 3G UK Limited was a UK resident trading company that satisfied the basic definition of a ‘consortium company’ in ...