Non-Discrimination in European and Tax Treaty Law

I. S. 286Introduction

The main purpose of this thesis is to analyze the influence of the fundamental freedoms on the VAT Directive. While there are a lot of ECJ cases on the compatibility of direct tax rules with the fundamental freedoms, in respect of indirect taxation cases are much more focused on analyzing secondary law. On the one hand, this is comprehensible, because indirect taxation is harmonized to a large extent, whereas the Member States have kept sovereignty in the area of direct taxation. On the other hand, it is surprising, because it is to be expected that discrimination and restrictions of free movement also arise in the context of indirect taxation. There are at least five cases addressing the issue, but those cases have not yet been given much attention in the literature. The author will make an attempt to fill this gap by analyzing those judgments.

The analysis is organized into three sections. In the second section, the interaction between primary and secondary law in the EU legal order will be discussed. This analysis serves as a methodological framework for the third section, which forms the core of this thesis. In the third section, certain violations of primary law,...