Judgment — ECLI:EU:C:1997:412
Date: 1997-09-17
Language of the case: Portuguese
Court formation: Fifth Chamber
Based on: Treaty establishing the European Economic Community (1957)
Subject matter: Taxation;Free movement of goods;Value added tax;Customs Union;Internal taxation;Charges having an equivalent effect
Concepts: Prohibition of taxation on imported products in excess of that imposed on similar domestic products;Definition;Concept of value added tax and other similar taxes;Definition of internal taxation
Procedure: Reference for a preliminary ruling
Origin: Portugal

Summary of the Judgmen t 
1. Tax provisions — Internal taxation — Meaning 
(EC Treaty, Art. 95) 
2. Free movement of goods — Customs duties — Charges having equivalent effect — Internal 
taxation — Charge applicable to domestic and imported products but benefiting the former 
solely or to a greater extent — Criteria for characterization 
(EC Treaty, Arts 9, 12 and 95) 
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SUMMARY — CASE C-28/96 
3. Tax provisions — Harmonization of laws — Turnover taxes — Common system of value 
added tax — Prohibition of the levying of other national charges which can be characterized 
as turnover taxes — Purpose — Meaning of 'turnover taxes' — Scope — Charge levied only 
on certain products — Excluded 
(Council Directive 77/388, Art. 33) 
1. Pecuniary charges under a general system 
of internal charges applying systemati­
cally to domestic and imported products 
according to the same criteria are, in prin­
ciple, covered by Article 95 et seq. of the 
Treaty. 
2. A charge on the marketing of meat levied 
without distinction on domestic and 
imported products constitutes a charge 
having an effect equivalent to a customs 
duty, prohibited by Articles 9 and 12 of 
the Treaty, if the revenue from it is 
intended to finance activities benefiting 
only the taxed domestic products and if 
the resultant advantages fully offset the 
burden which the latter products bear; if 
those advantages only partly offset the 
burden borne by the domestic products, 
the charge constitutes discriminatory 
internal taxation prohibited by Article 95 
of the Treaty and must be reduced pro­
portionally. 
If the activities financed by the charge 
benefit domestic products and taxed 
imported products but the former obtain 
a proportionally greater advantage from 
them, the charge constitutes, to that 
extent, a charge having an effect equiva­
lent to a customs duty or discriminatory 
internal taxation, depending on 'whether 
the advantage accruing to the taxed 
domestic products fully or only partly 
offsets the burden which they bear. 
It follows that, with a view to determin­
ing how the charges on the marketing of 
meat and offal, the charge in respect of 
ruminants and the charge for measures to 
combat swine fever are to be character­
ized in law, it is incumbent on the 
national court to consider: 
— whether the revenue from the charge spe­
cifically intended to be used to combat 
diseases of livestock reared on national 
territory benefits exclusively animals of 
national origin or, at least, benefits them 
proportionally more than imported ani­
mals; 
— whether the revenue from all the charges 
at issue is used for stabilization only of 
trade with the other Member States in the 
products which bear the charges; 
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FAZENDA PÚBLICA v FRICARNES 
— whether the institutional integration of the 
organizations representing the economic 
agents concerned and the implementation 
of the national and Community aid 
schemes and financial and fiscal incentives 
in favour of the agri-foodstuffs industry 
and the distribution of agri-foodstuffs, to 
which part of the revenue from the 
charges in question is appropriated, benefit 
only domestic production or whether they 
benefit such production proportionally 
more than imported products. 
3. Since the aim pursued by Article 33 of 
the Sixth Directive (77/388) on the har­
monization of the laws of the Member 
States relating to turnover taxes is to pre­
clude the introduction of taxes, duties and 
charges which, because they are levied on 
the movement of goods and services in a 
way comparable to value added tax, 
would compromise the functioning of the 
common system of value added tax, that 
provision does not preclude the levying 
of a charge which is applied only to cer­
tain products, is not proportional to the 
price of those products, is not charged at 
each stage of the production and distribu­
tion process and is not imposed on the 
added value of the goods. Since it displays 
none of the characteristics of value added 
tax, such a charge does not apply to the 
movement of goods and services in a 
manner comparable to value added tax. 
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