European Union law

THE European Court of Human Justice has scrapped the UK discount on import VAT for works of art in relation to auctioneers' commissions.

BY IVAN MACQUISTEN Droit de Suite, the much-feared extra levy on art sales, cannot now be introduced in the UK on January 1 next year.

A GATHERING of Europe’s leading art market professionals is calling on the European Commission to delay extending the worst effects of Droit de Suite after 2012 in the UK.

THE British Numismatic Trade Association have just issued a notice to their members about a new European Union import tax. As from March 1 an ad valorem duty has been imposed on any United States Mint modern products imported into the European Union under the following codes – 71189000 and 71181010.

By a vote of 9-6 the member states of the European Union opted to shelve plans to change current laws relating to the hallmarking of precious metals. The decision not to proceed with the controversial Precious Metals Directive, taken on November 21, was welcomed by British hallmarkers, anxious to preserve one of the nation’s earliest forms of consumer protection.

The Antiquities Dealers’ Association have welcomed the news that Switzerland looks set to ratify the 1970 UNESCO Convention which calls for signatory countries to collaborate on the repatriation of stolen and illicit works of art.

FRENCH auctioneers are trying to build links with the British Art Market Federation to campaign against damaging European Union regulations which are driving business across the Atlantic to the USA.

Scrap it or at least make life easier for the trade, new study demands: THE European Union should look again at the whole issue of Import VAT and art market red tape, say The European Fine Art Foundation.

European Union rules to combat money laundering due to come into force in June will oblige businesses accepting cash payments of more than €15,000 (£9400) to adopt a raft of new procedures.

COMPLEX bureaucracy and form filling are the biggest threat to small business – the backbone of the European art market – says Anthony Browne, chairman of the British Art Market Federation.

The European Commission announced last week that they intend to take action against Sotheby’s and Christie’s regarding a whole range of anti-competitive practices.

Pending appeals leave compensation in limbo: With the conviction of Sotheby’s chief shareholder, Alfred Taubman, on price-fixing charges, attention now turns to the outstanding matters concerning compensation.

The long debate over droit de suite, the artists resale levy, is over after the European Union finally ratified the measure in Brussels last week.

PRIME Minister Tony Blair has taken the unusual step of announcing that the UK government will vote against droit de suite, the artists resale levy, when the European Union puts it to the final vote.

THE British Art Market Federation has expressed disappointment as the European Parliament is seeking to reverse special provisions for the UK concerning droit de suite, the artists’ resale levy.

SEVENTY-FIVE leading contemporary artists have lent their names to a poster campaign against droit de suite, claiming that the currrent EU directive on artists’ resale right deprives them of their right to freedom of choice.

ANTHONY Browne, chairman of the British Art Federation, has just led a delegation of art dealers to Strasbourg to lobby the European Parliament further on the artists’ resale levy, droit de suite.

UK: The UK Office of Fair Trading and the European Union regulatory body for competition have begun their own investigations into alleged commission fixing by Sotheby's and Christie's.

UK: ANTIQUES and works of art for sale will not have to carry price tags under the terms of the EU Price Marking Order which will come into effect on March 18, 2000.

EU: THE British Art Market Federation wants the European Union to abandon its bid to impose the artists’ resale rights on the UK after member states again failed to vote on the measure on Thursday.