Order — ECLI:EU:C:2014:2313
Date: 2014-10-22
Language of the case: German
Court formation: Sixth Chamber
Subject matter: Free movement of goods;Common customs tariff;Customs Union
Procedure: Reference for a preliminary ruling
Origin: Germany

Summary — Order of the Court (Sixth Chamber) of 22 October 2014 1. Questions referred for a preliminary ruling — Answer admitting of no reasonable doubt — Application of Article 99 of the Rules of Procedure (Rules of Procedure of the Court of Justice, Art. 99) 2. Questions referred for a preliminary ruling — Jurisdiction of the Court — Limits — Classification of goods under the tariff headings of the Common Customs Tariff (Art. 267 TFEU) 3. Customs union — Common Customs Tariff — Tariff headings — Drink made up, inter alia, of water, sugar, concentrated orange, lemon, grape, pineapple, mandarin, nectarine and passion fruit juice, apricot and guava pulp, acidification agent, vitamin mixture, natural and artificial flavouring agents and with a total fruit content of 12% — Classification under heading 2202 10 00 of the Combined Nomenclature (Council Regulation No 2658/87, Annex I, position 2202 10 00) 1. See the text of the decision. (see para. 25) 2. Where the Court has before it a request for 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 necessarily have available to it all the information which is essential in that regard. In any event, the national court is in a better position to do so. However, in order to give the national court a useful answer which will enable it to effect the tariff classification on which it is asked to adjudicate, the Court may, in a spirit of cooperation with national courts, provide it with all the guidance that it deems necessary. (see paras 28, 29) 3. The Combined Nomenclature contained in Annex 1 to Regulation No 2658/87 on the tariff and statistical nomenclature and on the Common Customs Tariff, as amended by Regulation No 1719/2005, must be interpreted as meaning that a beverage made up, inter alia, of water, sugar, concentrated orange, lemon, grape, pineapple, mandarin, nectarine and passion fruit juice, apricot and guava pulp, acidification agent, vitamin mixture, natural and artificial flavouring agents and with a total fruit content of 12%, comes under subheading 2202 10 00 of that nomenclature. (see para. 38, operative part)