The Firm’s team – composed of partners Giancarlo Zoppini and Giuseppe Pizzonia – defended MTV in the Supreme Court proceedings regarding the VAT regime applicable to so-called negotiating rights (diritti di negoziazione) i.e. the remuneration that advertising agencies pay to media centres, based on the volume of sales of advertising space procured by the latter.

The dispute centred on the issue of deductibility of VAT paid by advertising agencies on such remuneration, which the Revenue Agency challenged on the basis that the activity performed by media centres could not, for VAT purposes, constitute the provision of a service.

The trial before the Supreme Court was decided on two levels, the first being of a formal-procedural nature and with reference to which, the defence put forward by the Company argued the inadmissibility of the Revenue Agency’s appeal, the second was of a substantial nature and with respect to which, the same defence argument sustained the validity of the VAT deduction made by the taxpayer. The Supreme Court accepted the procedural reasons, while also incidentally but clearly accepting the right to deduct VAT.