Judgment — ECLI:EU:T:2003:233
Date: 2003-09-17
Based on: Treaty establishing the European Economic Community (1957)
Subject matter: Agriculture and Fisheries;Free movement of goods;Customs Union;Eggs and poultry
Concepts: Own resources of the Communities
Procedure: Action for annulment - unfounded
Origin: Germany

Summary of the Judgment 
Own resources of the European Communities — Post-clearance recovery of import or 
export duties — Conditions under Article 220(2)(b) of Regulation No 2913/92 for the 
waiver of import duties — Whether error detectable by the trader — Criteria for 
assessment — Proportionality principle 
(Council Regulation No 2913/92, Art. 220(2)(b)) 
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SUMMARY — JOINED CASES T-309/01 AND T-239/02 
Concerning the second of the cumulative 
conditions, laid down by Article 220(2)(b) 
of Regulation No 2913/92 establishing the 
Community Customs Code, which have to 
be met for the competent authorities to be 
able to waive subsequent accounting for 
import duties, according to which con­
dition the error by the competent customs 
authorities must be of such a kind that it 
could not reasonably have been detected by 
a taxable person acting in good faith, the 
question whether such an error was detect­
able must be determined having regard to 
the nature of the error, the professional 
experience of the traders concerned and the 
degree of care which they exercised. 
The nature of the error is to be determined 
in the light of the complexity or otherwise 
of the rules concerned and the period of 
time during which the authorities persisted 
in their error. As regards the professional 
experience of the trader concerned, it needs 
to be determined whether he is a profes­
sional economic trader, whose business 
essentially consists in import and export 
operations and whether he already had 
some experience of trading in the goods in 
question. As regards the degree of care 
shown by the trader concerned, the latter is 
under a duty, as soon as he himself has 
doubts as to the need for an import licence 
in order to benefit from a preferential tariff 
quota, to make enquiries and seek the 
greatest clarification possible in order to 
ascertain whether or not those doubts are 
well founded. On that point, such a trader 
must ascertain the Community law appli­
cable to the transactions which he under­
takes by reading the relevant issues of the 
Official Journal. As from the date of their 
publication in the Official journal of the 
European Communities, the applicable 
Community tariff provisions constitute the 
sole relevant positive law on the matter and 
all persons are deemed to be aware of them; 
a customs tariff manual drawn up by the 
national authorities, by contrast, is merely 
a guide for customs operations, with purely 
indicative value. 
Where the conditions for applying 
Article 220(2)(b) of that regulation are 
not met, the fact that action for post-clear­
ance recovery of customs duties is taken 
does not constitute an infringement of the 
proportionality principle. 
(see paras 55, 61-62, 69, 73, 75, 87) 
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