Judgment;Summary — ECLI:EU:C:2023:346
Date: 2023-04-27
Language of the case: Dutch
Court formation: Sixth Chamber
Subject matter: Free movement of goods;Common customs tariff;Customs Union
Procedure: Reference for a preliminary ruling
Origin: Netherlands

Summary of the request for a preliminary ruling pursuant to Article 98(1) of 
the Rules of Procedure of the Court of Justice  
Date lodged: 
16 February 2022 
Referring court: 
Gerechtshof Amsterdam (Netherlands) 
Date of the decision to refer: 
8 February 2022 
Applicant: 
X BV 
Inspecteur van de Belastingdienst Douane, district Rotterdam 
Defendant: 
  
Subject matter of the main proceedings 
The main proceedings concern the question whether X BV put satellite receivers 
or components of satellite receivers into free circulation.  
Subject matter and legal basis of the request 
In this request for a preliminary ruling under Article 267 TFEU, the referring 
court asks the Court of Justice, in essence, whether general interpretative rule 2(a) 
of Regulation No 2658/87 applies also to the separate components of an article 
which are imported together with it and, if so, whether that is the case even where 
some of those components are placed under the external Community transit 
procedure before assembly. 
Questions referred 
1) Must general interpretative rule 2(a) be interpreted as applying to the 
separate components of a satellite receiver which are intended, after their release 
EN 
SUMMARY OF THE REQUEST FOR A PRELIMINARY RULING – CASE C-107/22 
 
2  
for free circulation, to be assembled into a complete satellite receiver, which 
components are transported in a single container and are declared for release for 
free circulation on the same day, at the same customs post, by the same declarant 
in its own name and on its own behalf, under two separate declarations, and which 
are owned by two associated undertakings at the time of being put into free 
circulation?  
2) If question 1 is answered in the affirmative, must general interpretative rule 
2(a) then be interpreted as also applying to the separate components of a satellite 
receiver which are declared for release for free circulation by the same declarant 
in its own name and on its own behalf, on the same day and at the same customs 
post as that at which the other components for that satellite receiver are placed 
under the external Community transit procedure, when the components, at the 
time when the declarations are made, are the property of two associated 
undertakings and all the components together are intended, after being put into 
free circulation, to be assembled into a complete satellite receiver?  
Provisions of EU law relied on 
Council Regulation (EEC) of 23 July 1987 on the tariff and statistical 
nomenclature and on the Common Customs Tariff, Part I, Section I, division A; 
Part II, headings 8528, 8529, 8504, 7318. 
Council Decision 87/369/EEC of 7 April 1987 concerning the conclusion of the 
International Convention on the Harmonized Commodity Description and Coding 
System and of the Protocol of Amendment thereto. 
Commission Regulation (EEC) No 2454/93 of 2 July 1993 laying down 
provisions for the implementation of Council Regulation (EEC) No 2913/92 
establishing the Community Customs Code, Article 198. 
Commission Guidelines on the classification in the Combined Nomenclature of 
goods put up in sets for retail sale, Part C.  
Provisions of national law relied on 
Nil 
Succinct presentation of the facts and procedure in the main proceedings 
1 In 2006 and 2007, X BV made, in its own name and on its own behalf, 39 
declarations for the release for free circulation in the Netherlands of components 
for satellite receivers.  
X AND INSPECTEUR VAN DE BELASTINGDIENST DOUANE 
 
3 
2 It always made two declarations on a given day: one for goods of C GmbH and 
one for goods of D GmbH. C GmbH and D GmbH are German legal persons 
belonging to the same group of companies.  
3 The two declarations always cover all the components of the same model of 
satellite receiver in corresponding quantities. All of the goods originate from the 
same supplier in China. 
4 On 23 July 2007, X BV filed a declaration for goods of C GmbH transported in a 
container from China to the Netherlands. For the remaining goods in the same 
container, it made a declaration placing them under the external Community 
transit procedure (T1) for the transport of those goods of D GmbH from the 
Netherlands to Germany.  
5 Each of the declarations contained for the most part the following goods 
descriptions: 
- Electronic assemblies under CN heading 8529 9060 
- Furniture under CN heading 8529 9059 
- Modulators under CN heading 8504 4090 
- Mainboard and tuner under CN heading 8529 9060 
- Parts and accessories under CN heading 8529 9059 
- Cast iron items under CN heading 7318 1290 
- Front panels under CN heading 8529 9059. 
6 In each case, after being put into free circulation, the components were assembled 
by D GmbH in Germany into satellite receivers under CN heading 8528 1295.  
7 In 2009, the belastingdienst (Tax and Customs Administration, Netherlands) 
checked the declarations. According to those authorities, X BV had not put 
components for satellite receivers into free circulation but rather – in application 
of general interpretative rule 2(a) – satellite receivers in a disassembled state. The 
belastingdienst therefore notified X BV that it would have to pay an additional 
EUR 389 973.70 in customs duties.  
8 X BV lodged an objection against that decision, which was rejected. It then 
lodged an appeal with the rechtbank Noord-Holland (District Court, North 
Holland), which upheld that appeal and partially annulled the payment 
notification.  
9 X BV and the belastingdienst have both lodged an appeal against that decision 
with the Gerechtshof Amsterdam (Court of Appeal, Amsterdam).  
SUMMARY OF THE REQUEST FOR A PRELIMINARY RULING – CASE C-107/22 
 
4  
Essential arguments of the parties to the main proceedings 
10 According to X BV, the imported goods must be classified, by application of 
general interpretative rule 1, under the CN headings under which it has declared 
them.  
11 The belastingdienst take the view that those goods must be classified, by 
application of general interpretative rule 2(a), as satellite receivers under CN 
heading 8528 7119.  
Succinct presentation of the reasoning in the request for a preliminary ruling 
Question 1 
12 The referring court questions how general interpretative rule 2(a) must be 
interpreted and, in particular, whether the components of satellite receivers 
declared for release for free circulation in two separate declarations must be 
classified as satellite receivers in a disassembled state. In particular, it seeks to 
establish how the criterion ‘put forward simultaneously for customs clearance’, 
formulated by the Court of Justice in its judgment in Case 183/73 Osram GmbH, 
is to be interpreted.  
13 The text of general interpretative rule 2(a) does not provide a definitive answer as 
to how an article in a disassembled state should be put forward. The question is 
whether it suffices for the criterion of being ‘put forward simultaneously’ that (1) 
the goods belong to different legal persons within one group, (2) are intended, 
once in free circulation, to be assembled into a single finished product, (3) are 
transported in a single container and (4) are declared for release for free 
circulation by the same declarant in its own name and on its own behalf, on the 
same day, at the same customs post in two separate declarations, or is it rather the 
case that there can be a question of being ‘put forward simultaneously’ only if the 
goods are declared for release for free circulation in a single declaration.  
Question 2 
14 If general interpretative rule 2(a) is to be interpreted as meaning that the goods 
released for free circulation in the declarations are to be regarded as satellite 
receivers in a disassembled state, the question then arises as to whether that is also 
the case where the declared components are intended to be assembled into satellite 
receivers together with the components which were transported in the same 
container from China to the Netherlands and were declared on the same day, by 
the same declarant, at the same customs post, for the purpose of placing them 
under the external Community transit procedure.