No competition?

Public body operating toll roads in Ireland

The National Roads Authority (NRA) a public body operated two of the ten toll roads in Ireland. The other eight were run by private companies.

The Irish Revenue treated the authority as a taxable person for VAT purposes on the ground that to treat it as a non-taxable person would lead to distortions of competition. The NRA disagreed saying it should be exempt. The matter was referred to the Court of Justice of the EU to decide whether the NRA was in competition with private operators.

The CJEU said the NRA operated the toll roads within the legal scheme peculiar to it. That activity could not therefore be considered as being in competition with that carried on by private operators. The theoretical possibility of a private operator entering the relevant market on the same terms did not constitute potential...