Judgment — ECLI:EU:C:2013:503
Date: 2013-07-18
Language of the case: Danish
Court formation: Eighth Chamber
Subject matter: Taxation;Excise duties
Procedure: Reference for a preliminary ruling
Origin: Denmark

Summary — Judgment of the Court (Eighth Chamber), 18 July 2013 1. Tax provisions — Harmonisation of laws — Excise duties — Directive 92/12 — Intra-Community movement of products subject to excise — Regulation No 3649/92 — Simplified accompanying document — Products released for consumption in a Member State and intended to be used in another Member State for commercial purposes — Products intended to be imported into the other Member State for private or commercial use — Obligation on the seller to check — None (Commission Regulation No 3649/92, Arts 1 and 4; Council Directive 92/12, Arts 7 to 9) 2. Tax provisions — Harmonisation of laws — Excise duties — Entry into force of Directive 2008/118 and repeal of Directive 92/12 — Effect (Council Directives 92/12, Arts 7 to 9, and 2008/118, Arts 32 to 34) 3. Tax provisions — Harmonisation of laws — Excise duties — Directive 92/12 — Products acquired and transported by private individuals for their own use within the meaning of Article 8 of the Directive — Check by the national authorities (Council Directive 92/12, Art. 8) 1. Articles 7 to 9 of Directive 92/12 on the general arrangements for products subject to excise duty and on the holding, movement and monitoring of such products, as amended by Directive 92/108 and Articles 1 and 4 of Regulation No 3649/92 on a simplified accompanying document for the intra-Community movement of products subject to excise duty which have been released for consumption in the Member State of dispatch, must be interpreted as meaning that a trader is not required to check whether purchasers from other Member States intend to import products subject to excise duty into another Member State and, where relevant, whether such importation is for private or commercial use. Under Article 1 of Regulation No 3649/92, if products subject to excise duty and already released for consumption in one Member State are intended to be used in another Member State for the purposes referred to in Article 7 of Directive 92/12, the person who is responsible for the intra-Community movement must draw up a simplified accompanying document. However, nothing in those provisions leads to the conclusion that a supplier, to the extent that it is not the ‘person who is responsible for the intra-Community movement’ under Article 1 of Regulation No 3649/92, must check whether the conditions are met for the person responsible to draw up the simplified accompanying document and to give copy 1 thereof to it so that the supplier can keep it. In accordance with Article 7(3) of Directive 92/12, depending on all the circumstances, the duty is to be due from the person making the delivery or holding the products intended for delivery or from the person receiving the products for use in a Member State other than the one where the products have already been released for consumption, or from the relevant trader or body governed by public law. It follows from this, first, that a trader, as a supplier who does not arrange delivery of the products sold, cannot be considered to be the ‘person making the delivery’ within the meaning of Article 7(3). Such a trader cannot be considered to be the person ‘holding the products intended for delivery’ within the meaning of Article 7(3), in so far as its self-service wholesale business does not make it possible for it to guarantee the commercial use of the products sold to customers from another Member State or that those products will actually be delivered into that Member State. (see paras 25, 28, 30, 32, 33, 38, operative part 1) 2. Articles 32 to 34 of Directive 2008/118 concerning the general arrangements for excise duty and repealing Directive 92/12 on the general arrangements for products subject to excise duty and on the holding, movement and monitoring of such products, as amended by Directive 92/108, must be interpreted as not substantially amending Articles 7 to 9 of Directive 92/12 but reproducing the content of those articles while clarifying it. (see paras 42, 43, operative part 2) 3. Article 8 of Directive 92/12 on the general arrangements for products subject to excise duty and on the holding, movement and monitoring of such products, as amended by Directive 92/108, must be interpreted as being capable of covering the purchase of products subject to excise duty where those products are acquired by private individuals, for their own use and are transported by them, which is for the competent national authorities to check on a case-by-case basis. (see para. 48, operative part 3)