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BRUSSELS (Reuters) - France, Germany, Italy and Poland called on the European Commission on Thursday to change tax rules for ebooks to reverse a court ruling that barred states giving sales tax discounts on electronic books in the way they do for paper publications.
Two weeks ago EU judges ruled that France and Luxembourg could not set rates of value-added tax (VAT) on ebooks that were below their general level on goods and services. Only paper books were on a list of products on which the EU allows governments to choose lower than normal rates of VAT, the judges said.
In a statement distributed by the French government, four of the five most populous states in the bloc said they wanted the EU executive to include in a plan to promote the "digital economy" legislation permitting a reduced rate of VAT on ebooks.
"Ministers call on the Commission to end discrimination against digital books," the joint statement read. "The essence of a book is the work itself, not the means of accessing it, and the tax applied should be technologically neutral."
Typical standard rates of VAT in the EU's 28 states are between 18 and 25 percent but most also charge a reduced rate of VAT on paper books, typically of between zero and 10 percent.