Keywords
Summary

Keywords

1. Free movement of goods ° Trade with non-member countries ° Customs duties ° Charges having equivalent effect ° Unilaterally introduced by Member States after the Common Customs Tariff entered into force ° Not permissible ° Levying of charges introduced before the Common Customs Tariff entered into force ° Whether permissible ° Conditions

(EC Treaty, Arts 18 to 29)

2. Preliminary rulings ° Interpretation ° Effects in time of rulings on interpretation ° Retrospective effect ° Limits ° Legal certainty

(EC Treaty, Art. 177)

Summary

1. It is incompatible with the EEC Treaty, now the EC Treaty, to levy a customs duty or a charge having equivalent effect which has been unilaterally introduced by a Member State after the introduction of the Common Customs Tariff on 1 July 1968 on goods imported directly from non-member countries which are not linked to the Community by a special agreement.

However, the Treaty does not preclude the levying of a charge having equivalent effect to a customs duty on imports which, having regard to all its characteristic elements ° including its designation, the chargeable event, the basis of assessment, the criteria for its application, the taxable persons and the way in which the revenue raised is applied ° must be regarded as a charge already in existence on 1 July 1968, provided that the level at which it is levied has not been raised. Where the level has been raised, only the amount over and above the initial level must be regarded as incompatible with the Treaty.

2. The Treaty provisions relating to customs duties and charges having equivalent effect cannot, for overriding reasons of legal certainty, be relied upon in support of claims for the reimbursement of sums, levied by way of "droit additionnel" on goods from non-member countries which are not linked to the Community by a special agreement, before 16 July 1992 ° the date of the judgment (C-163/90, Legros and Others) ruling that charges of that nature are not permissible under Community law ° except by claimants who have initiated legal proceedings or raised an equivalent claim before that date.

This also applies to sums levied on such goods before that date by way of "octroi de mer" to the extent that the levying of such sums, in breach of the prohibition on the unilateral introduction of new charges having equivalent effect after the establishment of the Common Customs Tariff, would be unlawful.