Opinion of the Advocate General — ECLI:EU:C:2000:159
Date: 2000-03-23
Based on: Treaty establishing the European Economic Community (1957)
Subject matter: Taxation;Free movement of goods;Value added tax;Customs Union;Excise duties
Procedure: Reference for a preliminary ruling
Origin: Finland

Summary of the Judgment 
1. Common Customs Tariff— Customs duties — Application to ethyl alcohol imported 
as contraband from a non-member country 
(Council Regulation No 2913/92) 
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SUMMARY — CASE C-455/98 
2. Tax provisions — Harmonisation of laws — Turnover taxes — Common system of 
value added tax — Tax on importation — Application to ethyl alcohol imported as 
contraband from a non-member country 
(Council Directive 77/388) 
3. Tax provisions — Harmonisation of laws — Excise duties — Directives 92/12 and 
92/83 — Application to ethyl alcohol imported as contraband from a non-member 
country 
(Coucil Directive 92/12 and 92/83) 
While illegal imports or supplies of goods 
which by their very nature or because of 
their special characteristics cannot be law­
fully marketed or introduced into economic 
channels, such as narcotic drugs or counter­
feit currency, are not subject to the taxes 
and customs duties normally payable under 
Community legislation, the principle of 
fiscal neutrality prevents any general dis­
tinction between lawful and unlawful 
transactions, apart from such cases where 
any competition between a lawful eco­
nomic sector and an unlawful sector is 
precluded. 
Ethyl alcohol imported as contraband from 
a non-member country is not a product 
whose marketing is prohibited by its very 
nature or because of its special character­
istics. Nor may ethyl alcohol be regarded as 
a product which is outside economic chan­
nels, since competition is possible between 
the contraband product and that traded in 
lawful economic channels, in that there is a 
lawful market in alcohol which is precisely 
the target of contraband products. 
Sixth Directive 77/388, Directive 92/12 on 
the general arrangements for products 
subject to excise duty and on the holding, 
movement and monitoring of such prod­
ucts, Directive 92/83 on the harmonisation 
of the structures of excise duties on alcohol 
and alcoholic beverages, and Regulation 
No 2913/92 establishing the Community 
Customs Code must therefore be inter­
preted as meaning that their provisions on 
liability to tax and tax debts apply also to 
contraband importation into Community 
customs territory of ethyl alcohol from 
non-member countries. 
(see paras 19-20, 23-24 and operative part) 
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