According to a ruling by the French Conseil d’État – 16 July 2026 – Case No. 498533, audiobook players for children are eligible for the 5.5% reduced rate of VAT. France’s Conseil d’État, the country’s highest administrative court, confirmed this in a ruling handed down on 16 July 2026.
Until now, the French Tax Authorities had applied the standard rate to these products, which combine a speaker with built-in audiobooks. They had set out this position in a 2024 tax ruling (BOI-RES-TVA-000174).
The Conseil d’État took a different view. What customers are really paying for is the audiobooks themselves. As the stories are built into the device and can only be played on it, the speaker counts as the physical medium for the books under Article 278-0 bis of the French Tax Code. The sale is therefore a supply of books on a physical medium, which qualifies for the 5.5% rate.
The court struck down the guidance that excluded these products from the reduced rate. The Tax Authorities have since fallen into line: on 29 July 2026, they withdrew their previous guidance and published new guidance on the VAT rates that apply to books.
