50Under the principle of fiscal neutrality, the failure of a taxable person to comply with the formal requirements of Article 42(b) of the VAT Directive cannot call into question the application of the Article 42 of that directive if the substantive conditions set out in Article 42(a) are otherwise satisfied (see, by analogy, judgments of 27 September 2012, VSTR, C‑587/10, EU:C:2012:592, paragraph 46, and of 9 February 2017, Euro Tyre, C‑21/16, EU:C:2017:106, paragraph 36). The refusal to apply Article 42 of the VAT Directive on such a ground could lead to double taxation in so far as the intermediary acquirer would also be taxed pursuant to the first paragraph of Article 41 of the VAT Directive, in the Member State which issued the VAT identification number which it used for that operation, while the final acquirer would also be taxed pursuant to Article 141(e) and Article 197 of the VAT Directive. In that regard, it should be added that, according to the case-law of the Court, Articles 41 and 42 of the VAT Directive are intended to ensure that the intra-Community acquisition in question is subject to VAT payable by the final customer, while avoiding double taxation of that transaction (see, to that effect, judgment of 22 April 2010, X and fiscale eenheid Facet-Facet Trading, C‑536/08 and C‑539/08, EU:C:2010:217, paragraph 35).
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