Judgment — ECLI:EU:C:2014:2389
Date: 2014-11-20
Language of the case: French
Court formation: Eighth Chamber
Subject matter: Free movement of goods;Common customs tariff;Customs Union
Procedure: Reference for a preliminary ruling
Origin: France

Summary — Judgment of the Court (Eighth Chamber), 20 November 2014 1. EU Law — Interpretation — Methods — Literal, systematic and teleological interpretation 2. Customs union — Common Customs Tariff — Importation free of customs duties — Scope — Animals specially prepared for laboratory use — Importation by an importer other than a public establishment or an authorised private establishment which is principally engaged in education or scientific research — Included — Condition — Animals intended for such an establishment (Council Regulation No 918/83, Art. 60) 3. Customs union — Common Customs Tariff — Tariff headings — Classification of goods — Concept of packing materials or packing containers within the meaning of general rule 5(b) of the Combined Nomenclature — Cages used for transportation of animals — Not included (Council Regulation No 2658/87, as amended by Regulation No 1789/2003, Annex I, general rule 5(b)) 1. See the text of the decision. (see para. 27) 2. Article 60 of Regulation No 918/83 setting up a Community system of reliefs from customs duty must be interpreted as meaning that, where animals specially prepared for laboratory use, which an importer brings into the European Union, are intended for a public establishment or an authorised private establishment which is principally engaged in education or scientific research, that importer, although it is not itself such an establishment, may be entitled to the relief from import duties provided for by that article for goods of this type. Entitlement to the relief from customs duty provided for in Article 60 of Regulation No 918/83 depends more on the use by the recipient of the imported goods than on the identity of the importer. Moreover, it is clear from the wording of Articles 128 and 129 of Regulation No 918/83 that the EU legislature foresaw the case in which the importer could be a person other than the recipient of the imported goods, in situations such as those provided for in Article 60 of Regulation No 918/83. Lastly, the achievement of the objective pursued by Article 60 of Regulation No 918/83, which is to facilitate research activities by allowing certain establishments located in the European Union to import, at minimal cost, animals specially prepared for laboratory use, would not be hindered by allowing those establishments to choose the most appropriate and most advantageous importation solution for them. As a result, given the context in which Article 60 of Regulation No 918/83 occurs and the objective pursued by that provision, it is not required that the importer of the animals covered by that article, in order to be entitled to the relief from import duties provided for in respect of goods of this type, meet the criteria classifying that importer as the recipient of those animals for the purposes of that provision. (see paras 30, 31, 33, 34, operative part 1) 3. General rule 5(b) of the Combined Nomenclature contained in Annex I to Regulation No 2658/87 on the tariff and statistical nomenclature and on the Common Customs Tariff, as amended by Regulation No 1789/2003, must be interpreted as meaning that cages used for transportation of live animals intended for laboratory research should not be categorised as packing materials or packing containers which are to be classified with the goods to which they relate. Having regard to the Explanatory Notes to the Combined Nomenclature and the International Harmonised Commodity Description and Coding System, cages used for transportation of live animals intended for laboratory research cannot be regarded as falling within the kind of packaging normally used for packing those types of animals for the purposes of general rule 5(b). Even assuming that these cages are normally used to transport the animals by air, they would be neither strictly necessary nor normally used for the marketing and use of such animals. (see paras 41, 43, operative part 2)