AI agents as Intermediaries: The EU VAT Classification of Agentic Commerce

Sammanfattning

This thesis examines the EU VAT classification of agentic commerce in relation to goods, with particular focus on the conditions under which deemed supplier treatment may arise. Agentic commerce refers to the use of AI agents to search for, select, and in some configurations complete purchases of goods on behalf of a user through an AI interface. The thesis asks who qualifies as a taxable person, how the supply made through the interface should be characterised, and whether the deemed supplier rules in Art. 14(2)(c) or Art. 14a VAT Directive apply. The thesis employs a legal dogmatic method, applying the VAT Directive, the Implementing Regulation, CJEU case law, and supporting sources to the fact pattern of current consumer-facing implementations. The analysis establishes that the provider of the AI interface is the taxable person under Art. 9(1) VAT Directive. The provider's service is electronically supplied in its mode of delivery and, where commercial arrangements with vendors exist and consideration is linked to completed transactions, intermediary in function. The commissionaire fiction under Art. 14(2)(c), read conjunctively with Art. 28, does not apply because the provider does not act in its own name in relation to the underlying supply, and does not satisfy the power criterion developed by the Court in Fenix International and confirmed in Xyrality. However, under Art. 14a, the provider satisfies the positive definition of facilitation, but whether it can rely on the cumulative exclusions to escape deemed supplier status is contested, depending on whether the exclusions are read broadly or narrowly. The thesis concludes that neither deemed supplier provision fully captures the AI agent provider's role. The provider occupies a position functionally comparable to platform intermediation, holding transactional information at least as strong as that of a platform, yet the current framework does not clearly capture it as a deemed supplier, raising the question whether the deemed supplier rules adequately reach this type of intermediary.