Keywords
Summary

Keywords

1. Community law — Multilingual texts — Uniform interpretation — Differences between the various language versions — Purpose and general scheme of the rules in question to be taken as the basis for reference

2. Common Customs Tariff — Customs value — Transaction value — Determination — Interest payable under a financing agreement — Excluded — Conditions — Interest distinguished from the price actually paid or payable — Declaration not mentioning the interest due or paid — (Commission Regulation No 1495/80, Art. 3(2)(a))

Summary

1. All the language versions of a Community provision must, in principle, be recognised as having the same weight and this cannot vary according to the size of the population of the Member States using the language in question. In order to maintain a uniform interpretation of Community law, in the case of divergence between those versions, the provision in question must therefore be interpreted by reference to the purpose and general scheme of the rules of which it forms part.

see paras 32-33

2. Article 3(2)(a) of Regulation No 1495/80 implementing certain provisions of Regulation No 1224/80 on the valuation of goods for customs purposes, as amended by Regulation No 220/85, which provides that the exclusion of interest from the customs value under a financing arrangement is subject to the requirement that charges for interest must be distinguished from the price paid or payable for the imported goods, is to be interpreted as meaning that payments of interest are distinguished from the price of the goods even if, at the time when the customs declaration is accepted, the customs authorities are in possession only of the invoice for the net price of the goods and neither that invoice nor the declaration of customs value reveal expressly or by implication that the buyer paid or must pay interest to the seller in the context of the import transaction in question.

see paras 30, 43, operative part