Judgment of the Court (Second Chamber) of 10 June 2010 (reference for a preliminary ruling from the VAT and Duties Tribunal, Manchester - United Kingdom) - Future Health Technologies Limited v The Commissioners for Her Majesty's Revenue and Customs
(Value added tax - Directive 2006/112/EC - Exemptions - Article 132(1)(b) and (c) - Hospital and medical care and closely related activities - Provision of medical care in the exercise of the medical and paramedical professions - Collection, testing and processing of umbilical cord blood - Storage of stem cells - Possible future therapeutic use - Transactions comprising a bundle of features and acts)
Language of the case: English
Referring court
VAT and Duties Tribunal, Manchester
Parties to the main proceedings
Appellant: Future Health Technologies Limited
Respondent: The Commissioners for Her Majesty's Revenue and Customs
Re:
Reference for a preliminary ruling - VAT and Duties Tribunal, Manchester - Interpretation of Article 132(1)(b) and (c) of Council Directive 2006/112/EC of 28 November 2006 on the common system of value added tax - Exemptions - Concepts of 'hospital and medical care and closely related activities' and 'the provision of medical care' - Services for collecting, transporting, analysing blood and stem cells from the umbilical cord of newborn children with a view to possible medical treatment
Operative part of the judgment
1. Where activities consisting in the dispatch of a kit for collecting blood from the umbilical cord of newborn children and in the testing and processing of that blood and, where appropriate, in the storage of stem cells contained in it for possible future therapeutic use, are intended only to ensure that a particular resource will be available for medical treatment in the uncertain event that treatment becomes necessary but not, as such, to diagnose, treat or cure diseases or health disorders, such activities, whether taken together or separately, do not come within the concept of 'hospital and medical care' in Article 132(1)(b) of Council Directive 2006/112/EC of 28 November 2006 on the common system of value added tax, or within that of 'the provision of medical care' in Article 132(1)(c) of that directive. It would be otherwise, as regards the analysis of umbilical cord blood, only if such analysis were actually intended to enable a medical diagnosis to be made, which it is for the referring court, if need be, to determine.
2. The concept of activities 'closely related' to 'hospital and medical care', within the meaning of Article 132(1)(b) of Directive 2006/112, is to be interpreted as not covering activities, such as those in question in the main proceedings, consisting in the dispatch of a kit for collecting blood from the umbilical cord of newborn children and in the testing and processing of that blood and, where appropriate, in the storage of stem cells contained in it for possible future therapeutic use to which those activities are merely potentially related and which has not been performed, commenced or yet envisaged.
____________1 - OJ C 102, 01. 05. 2009.