The ruling follows a dispute which arose when  David Hedqvist, a Swedish national, sought to provide brokerage services consisting of the exchange of traditional currency for the bitcoin virtual currency and vice versa.

Before starting to effect such transactions, Hedqvist requested a preliminary decision from the Swedish Revenue Law Commission in order to establish whether VAT must be paid on the purchase and sale of bitcoin virtual currency units. According to that commission, bitcoin is a means of payment used in a similar way to legal means of payment and the transactions that Hedqvist intends to effect must, consequently, be exempt from VAT.