Case C‑365/15

Wortmann KG Internationale Schuhproduktionen

v

Hauptzollamt Bielefeld

(Request for a preliminary ruling from the Finanzgericht Düsseldorf)

(Reference for a preliminary ruling — Customs Union and Common Customs Tariff — Reimbursement of import duties — Regulation (EEC) No 2913/92 (Customs Code) — Article 241, first paragraph, first indent — Obligation of a Member State to provide for the payment of default interest even where no action has been brought before the national courts)

Summary — Judgment of the Court (Third Chamber), 18 January 2017

Own resources of the European Union — Repayment or remission of import or export duties — Sums paid in error by the individual in respect of import duties determined on the basis of an invalid anti-dumping regulation — Obligation to pay to the individual entitled to reimbursement the corresponding interest

(Council Regulation No 2913/92, Art. 241)

Where import duties, including anti-dumping duties, are reimbursed on the ground that they have been levied in breach of EU law, this being a matter for the referring court to determine, there is an obligation on Member States, arising from EU law, to pay to individuals with a right to reimbursement the corresponding interest which runs from the date of payment by those individuals of the duties reimbursed.

In that regard, it must, admittedly, be observed that Article 241, first sentence, of the Customs Code provides that repayment by the customs authorities of amounts of import duties or export duties or of credit interest or interest on arrears collected upon payment of such duties is not to give rise to the payment of interest by those authorities. However, that provision cannot, in itself, mean that, in a situation such as that at issue in the main proceedings, national legislation can legitimately provide that there is no need to pay interest on reimbursed import duties from the time of payment of those duties up to the time of their reimbursement. It follows both from the legislative history of Article 241 of the Customs Code and from the context of that provision that it does not apply in circumstances such as those in the case in the main proceedings.

In that regard, it must be observed that, according to the case-law of the Court, it is for the national authorities to draw the consequences, in their legal system, of the annulment or declaration of invalidity of a regulation imposing anti-dumping duties, which has the consequence that anti-dumping duties paid under the regulation concerned are not legally owed within the meaning of Article 236(1) of the Customs Code and must, in principle, be repaid by the customs authorities in accordance with that provision, provided that the conditions to which such repayment is subject, including that set out in Article 236(2) of that code, are satisfied (see, to that effect, judgments of 27 September 2007, Ikea Wholesale, C‑351/04, EU:C:2007:547, paragraph 67, and of 18 March 2010, Trubowest Handel and Makarov v Council and Commission, C‑419/08 P, EU:C:2010:147, paragraph 25).

(see paras 24-26, 34, 39, operative part)