Opinion of the Advocate General — ECLI:EU:C:2002:258
Date: 2002-04-25
Based on: Treaty establishing the European Economic Community (1957)
Subject matter: Free movement of goods;Common customs tariff;Customs Union
Procedure: Reference for a preliminary ruling
Origin: Germany

Summary of the Judgment 
1. Preliminary rulings — Jurisdiction of the Court — Limits — Classification of goods 
under the tariff headings of the Common Customs Tariff 
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SUMMARY — JOINED CASES C-260/00 TO C-263/00 
2. Common Customs Tariff — Tariff headings — Wrist orthoses, lumbar support belts, 
elbow supports and knee supports — Classification under heading No 9021 of the 
Combined Nomenclature — Conditions 
3. Common Customs Tariff — Tariff headings — Supporting belts or other support 
articles whose intended effect on the organ to be supported or held derives solely from 
their elasticity within the meaning of Note 1 (b) to Chapter 90 of the Combined 
Nomenclature — Meaning of the term 'solely' 
1. When the Court is requested to give a 
preliminary ruling on a matter of tariff 
classification, its task is to provide the 
national court with guidance on the 
criteria which will enable the latter to 
classify the products at issue correctly 
in the Combined Nomenclature, rather 
than to effect that classification itself, a 
fortiori since the Court does not necess­
arily have available to it all the infor­
mation which is essential in that 
regard. The Court may thus find it 
necessary, in the context of tariff 
classification, to determine from the 
wording of the questions formulated by 
the national court, having regard to the 
facts set out in the order for reference, 
what aspects require an interpretation 
of Community law to enable that court 
to effect the tariff classification on 
which it is asked to adjudicate. 
(see paras 26, 28) 
2. Tariff heading 9021 of the Combined 
Nomenclature must be interpreted as 
meaning that products such as wrist 
orthoses, lumbar support belts, elbow 
supports and knee supports fall within 
that heading if they display character­
istics which distinguish them from 
ordinary belts and supports for general 
use, in particular by the materials of 
which they are made, their method of 
operation or their adjustability to the 
patient's specific handicaps. Such 
adjustment can be made either at the 
stage of manufacture of the product or, 
in the case of a prefabricated product, 
at a later stage, in particular at the 
stage of use, by means of special 
mechanisms afforded by the product 
itself, whether by a doctor or by the 
patient himself. It is for the national 
court to ascertain whether the products 
at issue display those characteristics. 
(see paras 41, 45, operative part 1) 
3. According to Note 1(b) to Chapter 90 
of the CN, that chapter 'does not 
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LOHMANN AND MEDI BAYREUTH 
cover... supporting belts or other sup­
port articles of textile material, whose 
intended effect on the organ to be 
supported or held derives solely from 
their elasticity (for example, maternity 
belts, thoracic support bandages, 
abdominal support bandages, supports 
for joints or muscles) (Section XI)'. 
The term solely' must be interpreted as 
meaning that the note does not exclude 
from that chapter belts and supports of 
which characteristics other than their 
elasticity contribute to a significant 
extent to the intended effect on the 
organ to be supported or held. How­
ever, the presence of factors producing 
a stabilising effect only on the belt or 
support itself, in order in particular to 
prevent it from creasing or coiling, 
cannot preclude application of that 
note. 
(see paras 6, 50-51, operative part 2) 
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