III.1. Court of Justice of the European Union

Judgement of the Justice Court of December 4, Case C‑493/18: Reference for a preliminary ruling. Judicial cooperation in civil matters. Insolvency proceedings. Regulation (EC) No 1346/2000. Article 3(1). Actions which derive directly from insolvency proceedings and which are closely connected with such proceedings. Sale of immovable property and creation of a mortgage. Action brought by the trustee in bankruptcy seeking a declaration that the transactions concerned are ineffective. Article 25(1). Exclusive jurisdiction of the courts of the Member State in which the insolvency proceedings were opened.

Summary:

“Article 3(1) of Council Regulation (EC) No 1346/2000 of 29 May 2000 on insolvency proceedings must be interpreted as meaning that an action brought by the trustee in bankruptcy appointed by a court of the Member State within the territory of which the insolvency proceedings were opened seeking a declaration that the sale of immovable property situated in another Member State and the mortgage granted over it are ineffective as against the general body of creditors falls within the exclusive jurisdiction of the courts of the first Member State.

Article 25(1) of Regulation No 1346/2000 must be interpreted as meaning that a judgment by which a court of the Member State in which the insolvency proceedings were opened authorises the trustee in bankruptcy to bring an action in another Member State, even if that action falls within the exclusive jurisdiction of that court, cannot have the effect of conferring international jurisdiction on the courts of that other Member State.”.

https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/?uri=CELEX:62018CJ0493

Judgement of the Justice Court of December 19, Case C-707/18: Reference for a preliminary ruling. Taxation. Common system of value added tax. Directive 2006/112/EC. Taxable transactions. Deduction of input tax. Purchase of immovable property not registered in the national land register. First-registration costs incurred by the purchaser. Recourse to specialist third companies. Participation in a supply of services or investment expenditure carried out for the purposes of an undertaking.

Summary:

“Council Directive 2006/112/EC of 28 November 2006 on the common system of value added tax must be interpreted as not precluding the parties to a transaction, the aim of which is to transfer the ownership of immovable property, from agreeing a clause according to which the future purchaser will incur some or all of the costs of the administrative formalities relating to that transaction, in particular those connected with the first registration of that property in the national land register. However, the mere presence of such a clause in a bilateral promise for the sale of immovable property is not determinative in order to ascertain whether the future purchaser is entitled to deduct the value added tax relating to the payment of the costs arising from the first registration of the property concerned in the national land register.

Directive 2006/112, and in particular Article 28 thereof, must be interpreted as meaning that, in the context of a bilateral promise for the sale of immovable property not registered in the national land register, the future purchaser — a taxable person — who, as he or she contractually undertook to do with regard to the future vendor in that promise, carries out the necessary steps for the first registration of the property concerned in that register by having recourse to the services provided by third parties who are taxable persons, is deemed to have supplied the services in question himself or herself to the future vendor, within the meaning of Article 28, even though the parties to the contract agreed that the sale price of that property does not include the value of the land-registration operations.”

https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/?uri=CELEX:62018CJ0707