1.   This Regulation lays down the conditions under which the competent authorities in the Member States for the application of the legislation on excise duties are to cooperate with each other, and with the Commission, in order to ensure compliance with that legislation. To that end, it lays down rules and procedures to enable the competent authorities of the Member States to cooperate and to exchange, by electronic means or otherwise, information that is necessary to ensure the correct application of legislation on excise duties.

2.   This Regulation shall not affect the application in the Member States of the rules on mutual assistance in criminal matters.

3.   It shall not affect the fulfilment of any wider obligation in relation to mutual assistance ensuing from other legal instruments, including bilateral or multilateral agreements.

1.   Each Member State shall designate the competent authority in whose name this Regulation is to be applied. It shall inform the Commission about that designation and about any subsequent change thereof without delay.

2.   The Commission shall make available a list of the competent authorities and publish this information in the Official Journal of the European Union.

1.   The competent authority of each Member State shall designate a central excise liaison office to which principal responsibility shall be delegated for contacts with other Member States in the field of administrative cooperation with respect to legislation on excise duties. It shall inform the Commission and the competent authorities of the other Member States thereof.

The central excise liaison office may also be designated as responsible for contacts with the Commission for the purposes of this Regulation.

2.   The competent authority of each Member State may designate liaison departments, other than the central excise liaison office, with the competence assigned according to its national legislation or policy to exchange directly information under this Regulation.

The central excise liaison office shall ensure that the list of these departments is kept up to date and made available to the central excise liaison offices of the other Member States concerned.

1.   The competent authority of each Member State may designate, under the conditions laid down by the Member State, competent officials who may exchange information directly under this Regulation.

The competent authority may limit the scope of such designation.

The central excise liaison office shall be responsible for keeping the list of competent officials up to date and making it available to the central excise liaison offices of the other Member States concerned.

2.   The officials exchanging information under Articles 12 and 13 shall be deemed to be competent officials for the purpose of those Articles, in accordance with the conditions laid down by the competent authorities.

1.   The central excise liaison office shall have principal responsibility for exchanges of information on movements of excise goods between Member States and in particular, it shall have principal responsibility for ensuring:

2.   Where liaison departments or competent officials send or receive requests for assistance, or responses to such requests for assistance, they shall inform the central excise liaison office of their Member State under the conditions laid down by the latter.

3.   Where a liaison department or a competent official receives a request for assistance requiring action outside its territorial or operational area, it shall immediately forward it to the central excise liaison office of its Member State and to the competent official of the liaison department in charge and inform the requesting authority thereof. In such a case, the periods laid down in Article 11 shall begin on the day following that on which the request for assistance was forwarded to the central excise liaison office and to the competent official of the liaison department in charge, but no later than one week following the reception of the request as referred to in the first sentence of this paragraph.

1.   The communication to the competent authority of another Member State of information or documents obtained by a competent authority with the authorisation or on request of a judicial authority shall be subject to the prior authorisation of the judicial authority if such authorisation is requested under national law.

2.   Where, in the case of a request for information, the judicial authority refuses such authorisation to the requested authority, the latter shall inform the requesting authority thereof in accordance with Article 25(5).

1.   At the request of the requesting authority, the requested authority shall communicate the information necessary to ensure the correct application of legislation on excise duties, including any information relating to a specific case or specific cases, in particular concerning movements of excise goods within the Union.

2.   For the purposes of communicating the information referred to in paragraph 1, the requested authority shall arrange for the conduct of any administrative enquiries necessary to obtain such information.

3.   The request referred to in paragraph 1 may include a reasoned request for a specific administrative enquiry. If the requested authority decides that no administrative enquiry is necessary, it shall immediately inform the requesting authority of the reasons for its decision.

4.   In order to obtain the information requested or to conduct the administrative enquiry requested, the requested authority or any administrative authority to which it has recourse shall proceed as though acting on its own account or at the request of another authority in its own Member State.

5.   The requested authority may request the requesting authority to provide feedback on the follow-up action taken by the requesting Member State on the basis of the provided information. Where such a request is made, the requesting authority shall, without prejudice to the rules on secrecy and data protection applicable in its Member State, send such feedback as soon as possible, provided that doing so does not impose a disproportionate burden on it.

1.   Requests for information and for administrative enquiries pursuant to Article 8 and replies to such requests shall be exchanged using a mutual administrative assistance document, subject to paragraph 4 of this Article.

Where the computerised system is unavailable, a fall-back mutual administrative assistance document shall be used instead of the mutual administrative assistance document.

2.   The Commission shall adopt implementing acts to determine:

The Commission may also adopt implementing acts to determine the structure and content of the feedback referred to in Article 8(5).

Those implementing acts shall be adopted in accordance with the examination procedure referred to in Article 35(2).

3.   Each Member State shall determine the situations in which the computerised system may be considered unavailable.

4.   Where the use of the mutual administrative assistance document is impractical, the exchange of messages may, exceptionally, be carried out in whole or in part by other means. In such cases the message shall be accompanied by an explanation of why the use of the mutual administrative assistance document was impractical.

1.   Documents, of whatever content, to be provided under Article 8 shall be attached to the mutual administrative assistance document referred to in Article 9(1).

However, in the event that this is impossible or impractical, the documents shall be provided by electronic means or otherwise.

2.   The requested authority shall be obliged to provide original documents only where such documents are necessary for the purpose pursued by the requesting authority and where providing them is not contrary to the provisions applicable in the Member State of the requested authority.

1.   The requested authority shall provide the information referred to in Article 8 as quickly as possible, and no later than three months following the date of receipt of the request.

However, where the requested authority is already in possession of that information, the time limit shall be one month.

2.   In certain special categories of cases, time limits different from those provided for in paragraph 1 may be agreed between the requested and the requesting authorities.

3.   Where the requested authority is unable to respond to the request within the time limit provided for in paragraph 1, it shall, within one month, inform the requesting authority using a mutual administrative assistance document of the reasons for its failure to do so and indicate when it expects to be able to respond.

1.   By agreement between the requesting authority and the requested authority and in accordance with the arrangements laid down by the latter, officials authorised by the requesting authority may be present in the offices of the administrative authorities of the requested Member State, or any other place where those authorities carry out their duties, with a view to exchanging the information necessary to ensure the correct application of legislation on excise duties.

Where the requested information is contained in documentation to which the officials of the requested authority have access, the officials of the requesting authority shall be given copies thereof.

2.   By agreement between the requesting authority and the requested authority and in accordance with the arrangements laid down by the latter, officials designated by the requesting authority may be present during the administrative enquiries carried out in the territory of the requested Member State with a view to exchanging the information necessary to ensure the correct application of legislation on excise duties.

Where such agreement is reached, the officials of the requesting authority may have access to the same premises and documents as the officials of the requested authority, through the intermediary of those officials and for the sole purpose of carrying out the administrative enquiry. Officials of the requesting authority shall conduct enquiries or ask questions only with the agreement and under the supervision of officials of the requested authority. They shall not exercise the powers of inspection conferred on officials of the requested authority.

3.   The officials of the requesting authority present in another Member State in accordance with paragraphs 1 and 2 shall at all times be able to produce a written authority indicating their identity and their official capacity.

1.   With a view to exchanging the information necessary to ensure the correct application of legislation on excise duties, two or more Member States may agree, on the basis of a risk analysis, to conduct simultaneous controls, in their own territory, of the excise duty situation of one or more economic operators or other persons, that are of common or complementary interest, whenever they consider that such controls would be more effective than controls carried out by one Member State only.

2.   In order to initiate a simultaneous control in accordance with paragraph 1, the competent authority of a Member State shall submit a proposal to the competent authorities of the other Member States concerned.

The proposal shall:

3.   The competent authorities which receive a proposal referred to in paragraph 2 shall confirm their agreement to participate in the simultaneous control or shall communicate their reasoned refusal to the proposing competent authority as soon as possible but no later than one month after receipt of the proposal.

4.   Each competent authority which participates in a simultaneous control shall appoint a representative responsible for supervising and coordinating the simultaneous control operation.

5.   After having carried out a simultaneous control, the competent authorities shall inform the central excise liaison offices of the other Member States without delay of any methods or practices discovered during the simultaneous control that were used or suspected of having been used to contravene legislation on excise duties, where such information may be of particular interest to other Member States.

1.   At the request of the requesting authority, the requested authority shall, in accordance with the rules governing similar notifications applicable in its Member State, notify the addressee of all decisions and measures taken by the administrative authorities of the requesting Member State concerning the application of legislation on excise duties.

2.   The requests for notification referred to in paragraph 1 shall mention the subject of the decision or measure to be notified and shall indicate the name, address and any other relevant information for identifying the addressee.

3.   The requested authority shall, without delay, inform the requesting authority of its action on the request for notification referred to in paragraph 1 and notify it of the date of transmission of the decision or measure to the addressee.

4.   Where the requested authority is unable to act on the request for notification referred to in paragraph 1, it shall inform the requesting authority thereof in writing within one month of receipt of the request.

The requested authority shall not refuse to act on such request on account of the content of the decision or measure to be notified.

5.   The requesting authority shall make a request for notification pursuant to this Article only when it is unable to notify the addressee in accordance with the rules governing the notification of the instruments concerned in the requesting Member State, or where such notification would give rise to disproportionate difficulties.

6.   This Article shall not apply to the documents referred to in Article 8 of Council Directive 2010/24/EU of 16 March 2010 concerning mutual assistance for the recovery of claims relating to taxes, duties and other measures (11).

1.   The competent authority of each Member State shall forward to the competent authorities of all other Member States concerned, without prior request and by means of regular or event-driven automatic exchange, the information necessary to ensure the correct application of legislation on excise duties, in the following cases:

2.   An authority which has forwarded information to another authority under paragraph 1 may request that other authority to provide feedback on the follow-up action taken by it on the basis of the information provided. If such a request is made, the other authority shall, without prejudice to rules on secrecy and data protection applicable in its Member State, send such feedback as soon as possible, unless that would impose a disproportionate administrative burden on it.

3.   Where the information referred to in paragraph 1 relates to a movement of excise goods within the Union, the information shall be forwarded using a mutual administrative assistance document, subject to paragraph 4.

However, where the use of that document is impractical, the exchange of information may, exceptionally, be carried out in whole or in part by other means. In such cases, the message shall be accompanied by an explanation of why the use of the mutual administrative assistance document was impractical.

4.   Where the computerised system is unavailable, the fall-back mutual administrative document shall be used instead of the document referred to in paragraph 3.

5.   The Commission shall adopt implementing acts to determine:

The Commission may also adopt implementing acts to determine the situations where the competent authorities may consider the computerised system unavailable for the purposes of paragraph 4 of this Article.

Those implementing acts shall be adopted in accordance with the examination procedure referred to in Article 35(2).

1.   The competent authorities of the Member States may forward to each other, without prior request, by means of spontaneous exchange, any information necessary to ensure the correct application of legislation on excise duties of which they are aware and which exchange is not covered by Article 15.

To that end, they may use the computerised system where the system is capable of processing such information.

2.   An authority which has forwarded information to another authority under paragraph 1 may request that other authority to provide feedback on the follow-up action taken by it on the basis of the information provided. If such a request is made, the other authority shall, without prejudice to the rules on secrecy and data protection applicable in its Member State, send such feedback as soon as possible, unless doing so would impose a disproportionate administrative burden on it.

3.   The Commission shall adopt implementing acts to determine:

The Commission may also adopt implementing acts to determine the structure and content of the feedback referred to in paragraph 2.

Those implementing acts shall be adopted in accordance with the examination procedure referred to in Article 35(2).

1.   Each Member State shall maintain an electronic database containing the following registers:

2.   The registers referred to in paragraph 1 shall contain the following information:

3.   The central excise liaison office or a liaison department of each Member State shall ensure that the information contained in the national registers is complete, accurate and up to date.

4.   The information contained in the respective national registers as referred to in paragraph 2 concerning economic operators engaged in moving excise goods under duty suspension arrangements between Member States, shall be automatically exchanged via a central register.

The Commission shall operate the register as a part of the computerised system in a manner that ensures at all times a correct up-to-date view of all national registry data provided by all Member States.

The central excise liaison offices or liaison departments of Member States shall communicate the content of the national register as well as any modification thereto to the Commission in a timely manner.

1.   The Commission shall ensure that persons involved in the movement of excise goods under duty suspension arrangements between the Member States can obtain confirmation by electronic means of the validity of excise numbers held in the central register referred to in Article 19(4). The Commission shall forward any requests from an economic operator for correction of that information to the central excise liaison office or liaison department that is responsible for the authorisation of that economic operator.

2.   The central excise liaison offices or liaison departments of Member States shall ensure that economic operators can obtain confirmation of the information about them held under Article 19(2) and can obtain the correction of any inaccuracies therein.

3.   The competent authority of a Member State may, under conditions fixed by that Member State, allow the Central Excise Liaison Office or designated Liaison Departments to communicate a confirmation of the information held under Article 19(2).

1.   Each Member State shall keep the information concerning movements of excise goods within the Union and the records contained in the national registers referred to in Article 19 for at least five years from the end of the calendar year in which the movement began, in order that such information can be used for the procedures provided for in this Regulation. That period may be limited to three years with respect to information entered into the national registers before 1 July 2012.

2.   Information collected through the computerised system shall be kept in that system in a way that makes it possible to retrieve and to further process that information within the system in response to a request for information referred to in Article 8.

1.   The Commission and the Member States shall ensure that the parts of the computerised system necessary for the exchange of information described in this Regulation are operational, appropriately maintained and further developed.

2.   The Commission and the Member States shall conclude a service level agreement and agree a security policy for the computerised system. The service level agreement shall define the technical quality and quantity of the services to be delivered by the Commission and the Member States in order to ensure the secure functioning of all parts of the computerised system and of the electronic communication and the allocation of responsibilities for the further development of that system.

1.   The requested authority shall provide the requesting authority with the information requested in accordance with this Regulation, provided that:

2.   This Regulation shall impose no obligation on the competent authority of a Member State to carry out enquiries or to provide information if the laws or administrative practices of that Member State do not authorise its authorities to carry out such enquiries or to collect or use such information for that Member State’s own purposes.

3.   The competent authority of a Member State may refuse to provide information if the requesting Member State is unable, for legal reasons, to provide similar information.

4.   The provision of information may be refused where it would lead to the disclosure of a commercial, industrial or professional secret or of a commercial process, or where its disclosure would be contrary to public policy.

5.   The requested authority shall inform the requesting authority of the grounds for refusing a request for assistance. For statistical purposes, competent authorities shall, on an annual basis, inform the Commission of the categories of grounds for refusals.

6.   In no case shall paragraphs 2, 3 or 4 be construed as permitting a requested authority to decline to supply information solely because that information is held by a bank, other financial institution, nominee or person acting in an agency or a fiduciary capacity or because it relates to ownership interests in a person.

1.   A request for assistance may be subject to a minimum threshold based upon the excise duty that is potentially due.

2.   The Commission may adopt implementing acts to specify the threshold referred to in paragraph 1 of this Article.

Those implementing acts shall be adopted in accordance with the examination procedure referred to in Article 35(2).

1.   Information communicated or collected by Member States pursuant to this Regulation or any information to which an official or other employee, or a contractor has had access in the course of his duties shall be covered by the obligation of official secrecy and shall enjoy the protection granted to similar information under the law of the Member State receiving that information.

2.   The information referred to in paragraph 1 may be used for the following purposes:

However, the competent authority of the Member State providing the information shall permit its use for other purposes in the Member State of the requesting authority, if the legislation of the Member State of the requested authority allows the information to be used for similar purposes in that Member State.

To the extent allowed by national law, and without prejudice to Article 1(2), the information referred to in paragraph 1 of this Article may be used in connection with judicial or administrative proceedings that can involve penalties initiated as a result of infringements of tax law, without prejudice to the rules governing the rights of the defendants and witnesses in such proceedings.

3.   Where the requesting authority considers that information it has received from the requested authority may be useful to the competent authority of another Member State, it may forward it to that authority. It shall inform the requested authority thereof.

The requested authority may make the communication of information to another Member State subject to its prior consent.

4.   All processing of personal data by Member States referred to in this Regulation shall be subject to the national provisions implementing Directive 95/46/EC.

Member States shall, for the purpose of the correct application of this Regulation, restrict the scope of the obligations and rights provided for in Article 10, Article 11(1) and Articles 12 and 21 of Directive 95/46/EC to the extent necessary to safeguard the interests referred to in point (e) of Article 13(1) of that Directive. Such restrictions shall be proportionate to the interest in question.

1.   For the purposes of applying this Regulation, a Member State shall take all necessary measures to:

2.   The Commission shall communicate without delay to the competent authority of each Member State any information necessary to ensure the correct application of legislation on excise duties, which it receives and which it is able to provide.

1.   A competent authority of a Member State which receives information from a third country may pass that information on to the competent authorities of any Member State which might be interested in it and, in particular, to the competent authorities which request it, in so far as permitted by assistance arrangements with that particular third country. Such information may also be passed on to the Commission whenever it is in the interest of the Union for the purposes of this Regulation.

2.   Where the third country concerned has given a legal undertaking to provide the assistance required to gather evidence of the irregular nature of transactions which appear to contravene legislation on excise duties, information obtained under this Regulation may be communicated by the competent authority of a Member State to that third country, in accordance with that Member State’s national law regarding transfers of personal data to third countries, for the purposes of the correct application of excise duties or similar taxes, duties and charges applicable in the third country with the consent of the competent authorities which supplied the information, in accordance with their national law.

1.   The authorities of a Member State in which a consignor of excise goods is established may grant assistance to that consignor where the latter fails to receive a report of receipt referred to in Article 24(4) of Directive 2008/118/EC, a report of export referred to in Article 25(3) of that Directive or, in the situations referred to in Article 33(1) of that Directive, a copy of the accompanying document referred to in Article 34 thereof.

Granting of such assistance shall be without prejudice to the tax obligations of the assisted consignor.

2.   Where a Member State grants assistance pursuant to paragraph 1 of this Article and considers it necessary to obtain information from another Member State, it shall request such information in accordance with Article 8. The other Member State may refuse to obtain the information requested if the consignor has not exhausted all the means available to him to obtain proof that the movement of excise goods between Member States has ended.

1.   The Member States and the Commission shall examine and evaluate the application of this Regulation. To that end, the Commission shall summarise regularly the experience of the Member States with the aim of improving the operation of the system established by this Regulation.

2.   The Member States shall communicate to the Commission the following:

With a view to evaluating the effectiveness of this system of administrative cooperation in enforcing the application of the legislation on excise duties and combating evasion and fraud concerning excise duties, Member States may communicate to the Commission any available information other than the information referred to in the first subparagraph.

The Commission shall forward the information communicated by Member States to the other Member States concerned.

The obligation to communicate information and statistical data shall not involve any unjustified increase of the administrative burden.

3.   The Commission may extract directly information from messages generated by the computerised system for diagnostic and statistical purposes, subject to Article 28.

4.   The information communicated by the Member States or extracted by the Commission for the purposes of paragraphs 1 to 3 shall not contain individual or personal data.

5.   The Commission shall adopt implementing acts to determine, for the purpose of implementing this Article, the relevant statistical data communicated by the Member States, the information to be extracted by the Commission and the statistical reports to be prepared by the Commission and by the Member States.

Those implementing acts shall be adopted in accordance with the examination procedure referred to in Article 35(2).

1.   The Commission shall be assisted by the Committee on Excise Duty established by Article 43(1) of Directive 2008/118/EC. That committee shall be a committee within the meaning of Regulation (EU) No 182/2011.

2.   Where reference is made to this paragraph, Article 5 of Regulation (EU) No 182/2011 shall apply.