Judgment — ECLI:EU:C:2010:809
Date: 2010-12-22
Language of the case: Dutch
Court formation: Third Chamber
Subject matter: Free movement of goods;Common customs tariff;Customs Union
Procedure: Reference for a preliminary ruling
Origin: Netherlands

Summary of the Judgment Common Customs Tariff – Tariff headings – Walker-rollators consisting of an aluminium frame on four wheels, two of which are front swivel wheels, with handles and brakes, and designed to assist persons who have difficulty walking (Commission Regulation No 729/2004) Regulation No 729/2004 concerning the classification of certain goods in the Combined Nomenclature, in the version resulting from a corrigendum published on 7 May 2004, is invalid in so far as, first, that corrigendum extended the ambit of the initial regulation to walker-rollators consisting of an aluminium frame on four wheels, two of which are front swivel wheels, with handles and brakes, and designed to assist persons who have difficulty walking and as, secondly, it classifies those walker-rollators under subheading 8716 80 00 of the Combined Nomenclature. In that regard it must be held that the corrigendum published on 7 May 2004 goes beyond a mere correction of a clerical error and in reality amends the content of Regulation No 729/2004 by making that regulation applicable to those walker-rollators. Such products cannot be classified under heading 8716 of the Combined Nomenclature. In order to be classified under that heading, a vehicle with one or more wheels must be designed to transport persons or goods. However, those walker-rollators do not correspond to those characteristics. They were specially designed to allow persons suffering from an impairment of mobility to walk by themselves, thus compensating for the lack of the balance essential for walking. Those walker-rollators therefore serve a function similar to that of crutches, which is a relevant factor for the purposes of their classification under heading 9021 of the Combined Nomenclature. (see paras 36,46,53,55, 59, operative part)