Opinion of the Advocate General — ECLI:EU:C:1996:490
Date: 1996-12-12
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: Netherlands

Summary of the Judgment 
Common Customs Tariff— Tariff headings — Apparatus comprising a scanning device, a digital 
memory and a printing unit — CLssification under sub-heading 9009 12 00 of the combined 
nomencUture on the basis of general rule 3(c) for the interpretation of that nomenclature 
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SUMMARY — CASE C-67/95 
The Common Customs Tariff must be inter­
preted as meaning that apparatuses which 
can both send faxes and make copies, and 
comprise a scanning device (scanner), a digi­
tal storage device (memory) and a printing 
device (laser printer), are to be classified 
under sub-heading 9009 12 00 of the com­
bined nomenclature. 
Such multi-function machines, which might 
be classified either under heading 8517 or 
under heading 9009, must be classified, in 
accordance with general rule 3(c) for the 
interpretation of the combined nomencla­
ture, under the heading which occurs last in 
numerical order among those which equally 
merit consideration since, first, general rule 
3(a), according to which the most specific 
description is to be preferred, is excluded 
because the relevant tariff headings fall 
within different chapters and, second, general 
rule 3(b) does not apply because those appa­
ratuses display no feature enabling their 
essential character to be determined. 
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