Case C‑155/13

Società Italiana Commercio e Servizi srl (SICES) and Others

v

Agenzia Dogane Ufficio delle Dogane di Venezia

(Request for a preliminary ruling from the Commissione tributaria regionale di Venezia-Mestre)

‛Agriculture — Regulation (EC) No 341/2007 — Article 6(4) — Tariff quotas — Garlic of Chinese origin — Import licences — Non-transferable nature of rights deriving from certain import licences — Circumvention — Abuse of rights’

Summary — Judgment of the Court (Fourth Chamber), 13 March 2014

  1. EU law — Abuse of a right arising from a provision of EU law — Transactions constituting an abusive practice — Elements to be taken into consideration — Verification a matter for the national court

  2. Agriculture — Common organisation of the markets — Fruit and vegetables — Imports from third countries — System of importation — Tariff quota — Import by an operator of goods purchased outside the European Union from another operator having exhausted its import licences — Resale of goods to the second operator following the import — Lawfulness — Limits — Misuse of rights — Verification a matter for the national court

    (Commission Regulation No 341/2007, Arts 4(2) and 6(4))

  1.  See the text of the decision.

    (see paras 29-34)

  2.  Article 6(4) of Regulation No 341/2007 opening and providing for the administration of tariff quotas and introducing a system of import licences and certificates of origin for garlic and certain other agricultural products imported from third countries must be interpreted as not precluding, in principle, transactions by which an importer, which holds reduced rate import licences, purchases goods outside the European Union from an operator, itself a traditional importer within the meaning of Article 4(2) of that regulation, but having exhausted its own reduced rate import licences, then resells them to that operator after having imported them into the European Union. However, such transactions constitute an abuse of rights where they are artificially created with the essential aim of benefiting from the preferential rate of duty. The checking for abuse requires the referring court to take into account all the facts and circumstances of the case, including the commercial transactions preceding and following the import at issue.

    (see para. 40, operative part)