Compagnie commerciale de l’Ouest v Receveur principal des douanes de La Pallice-Port: ECJ 11 Mar 1992

A parafiscal charge applied under the same conditions as regards its collection to both domestic and imported products, the revenue from which is used for the benefit of domestic products only, so that the advantages accruing from it wholly offset the charge borne by those products, constitutes a charge having an effect equivalent to customs duties prohibited by Article 12 of the EEC Treaty. If, on the other hand, those advantages only partly offset the charge borne by domestic products, the charge in question constitutes discriminatory taxation prohibited by Article 95 of the Treaty, the collection of which is prohibited as regards the proportion of it used to offset the burden of the charge borne by domestic products.
Such a parafiscal charge, being governed by Article 12 et seq. or Article 95 of the Treaty, is not governed by Article 30 thereof.
A parafiscal charge applied under the same conditions as regards its collection to both domestic and imported products, the revenue from which is used for the benefit of domestic products only, so that the advantages accruing from it wholly offset the charge borne by those products, may, depending on how the revenue from it is used, constitute State aid incompatible with the common market if the conditions for the application of Article 92 of the Treaty are met, it being understood that a finding that those conditions are met must be made in accordance with the procedure laid down for that purpose in Article 93 of the Treaty.
Article 37 of the Treaty does not prohibit the introduction of a parafiscal charge which is created independently of the rules governing the importation and marketing of petroleum in force in a Member State and is unconnected with the exercise of the exclusive rights provided for by those rules.

Citations:

C-78/90, [1992] EUECJ C-78/90, [1992] ECR I-1847

Links:

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Cited by:

CitedBloomsbury International Ltd v Sea Fish Industry Authority and Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs SC 15-Jun-2011
The 1995 Regulations imposed a levy on fish both caught and first landed in the UK and also on imported fish products. The claimants, importers challenged the validity of the latter charges, saying that they went beyond the power given by the 1981 . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.

European

Updated: 01 June 2022; Ref: scu.160468