After a judgment of the European Court of Justice determined that the VAT rate applied on printing services in Sweden was too high, the Swedish Tax Agency refunded to printing companies the excess tax collected from them. Across the market, the overcharged and refundable sums are reported to amount to between three and four billion Swedish kronor. Disputes have arisen between printing companies and their customers regarding the question who has the right to the refunded VAT.
On the 22nd of December 2015, the Swedish Supreme Court ruled that customers are entitled to recover the overpaid VAT from the printers. The Court's ruling was based on the legal doctrine of condictio indebiti.
The customer in the case that came before the Supreme Court, Norstedt Publishing House, was represented by Setterwall lawyers, advokat Jesper Grünbaum and Cecilia Pehrson, LLM.