European Union – Value added tax. The Court of Justice of the European Union gave a preliminary ruling in which it decided that art 132(1)(i) of Council Directive (EC) 2006/112 should be interpreted as meaning that activities carried out in circumstances such as those at issue in the main proceedings, consisting in students of a higher education establishment supplying, for consideration and as part of their education, restaurant and entertainment services to third parties, could be regarded as supplies 'closely related' to the principal supply of education and accordingly be exempt from VAT, provided that those services were essential to the students' education and that their basic purpose was not to obtain additional income for that establishment by carrying out transactions in direct competition with those of commercial enterprises liable for VAT, which it was for the national court to determine.