ECJ Articles 9 and 12 of the Treaty, which prohibit the levying of customs duties and charges having equivalent effect in intra-Community trade, must be interpreted as applying to a ‘transit charge’ designed to compensate a private undertaking for bearing costs arising from the performance by the customs and veterinary services of their tasks as providers of services in the public interest even if it has not been imposed by the State but arises from an agreement concluded by a private undertaking with its customers.
Those articles require the Member States to bear the costs of the controls and formalities carried out in connection with the movement of goods across frontiers and therefore prohibit, in intra-Community trade, the charging to economic agents, whether by virtue of a unilateral measure adopted by the authorities or as a result of a series of private contracts, of the costs of inspections and administrative formalities carried out by customs offices, the only charges authorized being those which constitute consideration for a specific service actually rendered to an economic agent individually.
However, a charge which applies generally to all vehicles in international transit whose load is cleared through customs within the confines of the road station and does not confer on economic agents, in connection with the completion of customs procedures, any advantages other than those which derive from the Community transit procedure which was established in the interests of the common market by Regulations Nos 542/69 and 222/77, does not fall within that category.
Judges:
Gulmann P
Citations:
C-16/94, [1995] EUECJ C-16/94
Links:
European
Updated: 03 June 2022; Ref: scu.161270
