The appeal at the Upper Tribunal related to the VAT treatment of telematics devices, known as black boxes, made by Ingenie Services Limited (ISL), which was a subsidiary of insurance intermediary Ingenie Ltd [now trading as WTGIL].

ISL was a member of the VAT group of which Ingenie was the representative member so for VAT purposes the black box supplies were deemed to have been made by Ingenie.

Ingenie supplied ISL with the black boxes, which were installed in cars as part of an insurance policy underwritten by a third party, primarily targeted at 17 to 25 year olds to capture and transmit information about the way the car was being driven.