Friedrich Binder Gmbh and C Kg v Hauptzollamt Bad Reichenhall: ECJ 12 Jul 1989

ECJ A trader is not entitled under Article 5(2) of Regulation No 1697/79 to the waiver of the post-clearance recovery of import duties if the error made by the customs authorities from which he benefited was due to the fact that those authorities, instead of applying the Community provisions relating to the customs tariff published in the Official Journal of the European Communities, referred to a national tariff manual which wrongly incorporated an anticipated reduction in duty proposed by the Commission but rejected by the Council, since it was an error which the trader could reasonably have detected within the meaning of that regulation.
Community provisions relating to the customs tariff constitute, from the date of their publication in the Official Journal of the European Communities, the sole relevant positive law, of which all are deemed to be aware . A tariff manual drawn up by national authorities constitutes no more than a handbook for customs clearance; it can have no more than indicative character and in no case lead to the calling in question of the primacy of Community law . Moreover, an error in relation to the rate of duty can be detected by an attentive trader from a reading of the Official Journal of the European Communities, in which the relevant provisions are published.
Furthermore, a commercial trader whose activities consist, essentially, of import-export operations cannot derive a legitimate expectation as to the applicable rate of duty merely from a Commission proposal incorporated in a national tariff manual, since it is not unreasonable to expect him to consult the relevant Official Journals .

Citations:

R-161/88, [1989] EUECJ R-161/88, [1988] ECR 2415

Links:

Bailii

Jurisdiction:

European

Cited by:

CitedIt’s A Wrap (UK) Ltd v Gula and Another CA 11-May-2006
The company was said to have paid dividends unlawfully, in that the directors who were the shareholders had paid themselves dividends knowing that the company had not earned enough to pay them.
Held: Where shareholders had knowledge of the . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.

Customs and Excise

Updated: 11 September 2022; Ref: scu.215716