The Commission has referred Germany to the CJEU to establish whether German VAT legislation on exemptions for sharing costs of services complies with EU law.

The VAT Directive provides an exemption for services that cost sharing groups can supply to their members, where certain conditions are met. German legislation exempts only groups in the health and medical sector and this restriction conflicts with EU law. The Commission requested Germany to amend its legislation to extend the scope of domestic VAT provisions to comply with the VAT Directive. As Germany did not amend its national legislation the case will now be presented to the CJEU.