62024CJ0488_RES
Case C‑488/24
D.V.
v
Kigas MB
(Request for a preliminary ruling from the Lietuvos Aukščiausiasis Teismas)
Judgment of the Court (Fourth Chamber) of 13 May 2026
(Reference for a preliminary ruling – Consumer protection – Directive 2011/83/EU – Article 5(1)(a) and (c) – Information requirements for contracts other than distance or off-premises contracts – Obligation on the trader to inform the consumer of the main characteristics of the service – Customs duties – Obligation on the trader to inform the consumer of the total price of the service – Additional charges – Content of the information to be provided to the consumer – Convention on the Contract for the International Carriage of Goods by Road (CMR) – Articles 6 and 11)
Consumer protection – Consumer contracts – Directive 2011/83 – Information requirements for contracts other than distance or off-premises contracts – Contract for the International Carriage of Goods by Road – Obligation on the trader to inform the consumer of the main characteristics and total price of the goods or services – Scope – Obligation to inform the consumer consignor that customs formalities and customs duties may be required – Included – Obligation to provide detailed information on the documents to be presented to customs and to indicate the rates and amounts of customs duties applicable – Precluded
(European Parliament and Council Directive 2011/83, Art. 5(1)(a) and (c))
(see paragraphs 43-50, 52, 54-58, operative part)
Résumé
Ruling on a request for a preliminary ruling from the Lietuvos Aukščiausiasis Teismas (Supreme Court of Lithuania), the Court of Justice rules, for the first time, on the extent of the obligations on traders to provide information to consumers as referred to in Article 5 of Directive 2011/83 (
1
), in the context of a contract for the international carriage of goods by road.
D.V., a consumer, concluded, by telephone with Kigas, a contract for the carriage of goods belonging to him from Norway to Lithuania. In response to a question from that company, D.V. stated that the goods to be carried were intended for his personal use, with the result that it was not necessary to provide a customs declaration. However, during a check at the border on entry into the territory of the European Union, the customs authorities concluded that those goods had to be declared to customs and set an amount of customs duty, paid by Kigas.
Kigas therefore sent an invoice to D.V. including the amount agreed for the carriage of goods service as well as the customs duties. In addition, it delivered all the goods entrusted to it except one, which it retained pending payment of the invoice.
D.V. then brought an action before the courts, while Kigas filed a counterclaim. Both the first instance court and the court ruling on appeal applied the Convention on the Contract for the International Carriage of Goods by Road (
2
) and ordered D.V. to pay Kigas the amounts claimed, while ordering Kigas to return the goods retained.
Hearing an appeal on a point of law, the referring court asks the Court, in essence, whether, for contracts concluded for the international carriage of goods by road, the trader is required to inform the consumer of the customs formalities and customs duties which may be payable, in accordance with Article 5(1)(a) and (c) of Directive 2011/83.
Findings of the Court
In the first place, the Court notes that the extent of the information which must be communicated beforehand by a trader in the context of a contract for the international carriage of goods must be assessed in the light of, inter alia, the nature of the service. In that regard, it notes that, taking account of the cross-border nature of that contract and of the fact that importing goods from a third country is habitually subject to customs duties, customs formalities constitute one of the main characteristics of that type of contract, of which a consumer must be informed before the contract is concluded.
The trader carrier is therefore under a duty to inform the consumer that importing carried goods may require customs formalities to be completed. However, where the trader undertakes solely to provide carriage of the goods without providing a customs brokerage service, that trader is not required to provide detailed information on the documents to be presented to customs, which is supported by Article 11(2) of the Convention on the Contract for the International Carriage of Goods by Road.
In the second place, as regards the trader’s obligation to inform the consumer of the total price of the service, the Court observes that, regardless of the reference to the total price or the method of calculating that price, account must be taken of the additional charges which may be added to the total price of the service and which, if they cannot be calculated in advance, must be indicated to the consumer as potentially being payable.
Accordingly, the Court considers that, in contracts for the international carriage of goods, customs duties constitute additional charges which are added to the total price of the service, since they are payable not because of the performance of the carriage service, but because of the introduction into the customs territory of the European Union of the goods being carried. In that type of contract, it is not always possible for the trader to calculate the total price of the service ‘inclusive of taxes’ before the contract is concluded, since the exact amount of the customs duties may depend on certain factors which may not be known in advance.
Therefore, the trader is under a duty to inform the consumer solely of the fact that customs duties may be payable, which constitute additional charges payable by the consumer which cannot reasonably be calculated in advance and included in the price of the carriage service.
In the light of the foregoing, the Court concludes that, in a contract for the international carriage of goods by road from a third country to a destination in a Member State of the European Union, the obligation on the trader to provide information under Article 5(1)(a) and (c) of Directive 2011/83 entails informing the sender consumer that importing the goods into the territory of the European Union may require customs formalities to be completed and that customs duties may be payable by that sender consumer. However, the trader is under no duty either to provide detailed information on the documents to be presented to customs or to indicate the rates and amounts of customs duties applicable.
(
1
)	Directive 2011/83/EU of the European Parliament and of the Council of 25 October 2011 on consumer rights, amending Council Directive 93/13/EEC and Directive 1999/44/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council and repealing Council Directive 85/577/EEC and Directive 97/7/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council (OJ 2011 L 304, p. 64).
(
2
)	The Convention on the Contract for the International Carriage of Goods by Road, signed in Geneva on 19 May 1956, as amended by the Protocol signed in Geneva on 5 July 1978.