Opinion of the Advocate General — ECLI:EU:C:1998:174
Date: 1998-04-28
Based on: Treaty establishing the European Economic Community (1957)
Subject matter: Taxation;Free movement of goods;Principles, objectives and tasks of the Treaties;Customs Union;Internal taxation
Procedure: Reference for a preliminary ruling
Origin: Italy

Summary of the Judgment
1. Community law — Direct effect — Customs duties and charges incompatible with Community
law — Repayment — Detailed rules — Application of national law — Requirements regarding
time-limits and procedure which are less favourable than those applying to actions between
private individuals for recovery of sums paid but not due — Whether permissible — Condi­
tions
I - 579
SUMMARY — CASE C-343/96
2. Community law — Direct effect — National duties and taxes incompatible with Community
law — Repayment — Detailed rules — Application of national law — Amendments, intro­
ducing less favourable conditions of repayment, adopted subsequent to a declaration by the
Court that a particular tax is incompatible with the Treaty — Whether permissible — Condi­
tions
3. Community law — Direct effect — Customs duties and charges incompatible with Community
law — Repayment — Detailed rules — Application of national law — Conditions — Onus
on taxpayer to prove that the charges have not been passed on — Not permissible
4. Community law — Direct effect — Customs duties and charges incompatible with Community
law — Repayment — Detailed rules — Application of national law — Requirement that the
claim for reimbursement be sent to the competent authority — Permissible
1. Community law does not preclude national
provisions from making repayment of cus­
toms duties or taxes contrary to Commu­
nity law subject to less favourable time-
limits and procedural conditions than those
laid down for actions between private indi­
viduals for recovery of sums paid but not
due, provided that those conditions apply
in the same way to actions for repayment
which are based on Community law and
to those based on national law and do not
make it impossible or excessively difficult
to exercise the right to repayment.
2. Community law does not preclude the
adoption by a Member State, following
judgments of the Court declaring duties
or charges to be contrary to Community
law, of provisions which render the condi­
tions for repayment applicable to those
duties and charges less favourable than
those which would otherwise have been
applied, provided that the duties and
charges in question are not specifically tar­
geted by that amendment and the new
provisions do not make it impossible or
excessively difficult to exercise the right to
repayment.
3. Community law precludes a Member State
from making repayment of customs duties
and taxes contrary to Community law
subject to a condition, such as the require­
ment that such duties or taxes have not
been passed on to third parties, which the
claimant must show he has satisfied.
To place upon the taxpayer the burden of
establishing that the duties or charges
unduly paid have not been passed on to
other persons has the effect of making it
virtually impossible or excessively difficult
to secure repayment.
I-580
DILEXPORT v AMMINISTRAZIONE DELLE FINANZE DELLO STATO
4. Community law does not preclude the
imposition, in the case of claims for repay­
ment of customs duties or taxes contrary
to Community law, of the non-retroactive
requirement which, if not fulfilled, renders
the claim inadmissible, that notice thereof
be given to the tax authority which received
the tax return of the person concerned for
the year in question.
In so far as such a procedural requirement
applies to all claims for repayment based
on either national law or Community law,
it does not have the effect of depriving the
persons concerned of the benefit of the
practical application of Community law
or of making their position less favourable
than if they were seeking repayment of
duties or taxes contrary to domestic law.
I-581