Keywords

Summary



Keywords

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1. Free movement of goods ° Customs duties ° Charges having equivalent effect ° Definition ° Ad valorem charge levied by a Member State on goods by reason of the entry of those goods into a part of its territory ° Inclusion, also from the point of view of taxation of domestic products

(EEC Treaty, Arts 9, 12 and 13)

2. Free movement of goods ° Customs duties ° Charges having equivalent effect ° Dock dues levied in the French overseas departments ° Decision of the Council temporarily authorizing those charges to be maintained after the entry into force of the Treaty ° Invalidity ° Temporal effects

(EEC Treaty, Arts 9, 12, 13, 227(2) and 235; Council Decision 89/688/EEC)

Summary

1. The dock dues imposed in the French overseas departments under a system whereby a Member State levies a charge proportional to their customs value on all goods entering a region within that State constitute charges which have equivalent effect to a customs duty on imports and are prohibited by Articles 9, 12 and 13 of the Treaty, not only in so far as they are levied on goods entering that region from other Member States, but also in so far as they are levied on goods entering that region from another part of the same State.

In the first place, a charge levied at a regional frontier by reason of the fact that goods are brought into one region of a Member State undermines the unity of the Community customs territory and constitutes an obstacle to the free movement of goods at least as serious as a charge levied at a national frontier on products entering a Member State as a whole. The unity of the Community customs territory is undermined by the establishment of a regional customs frontier just the same, whether the products on which a charge is levied by reason of the fact that they cross a frontier are domestic products or come from other Member States. Secondly, the obstacle to the free movement of goods created by the imposition on domestic products of a charge levied by reason of their crossing that frontier is no less serious than that created by the collection of a charge of the same kind on products from another Member State because, since the very principle of a customs union covers all trade in goods, as provided for by Article 9 of the Treaty, it requires the free movement of goods generally, as opposed to inter-State trade alone, to be ensured within the union. It is only because there were assumed not to be any obstacles in the nature of customs duties within the Member States that Article 9 et seq. make express reference only to trade between Member States.

It would, moreover, be inconsistent to hold that a charge applied to all goods crossing a regional frontier, whatever their origin, should be classified as a charge having equivalent effect when it applies to goods from other Member States but not when it applies to goods from another part of the same State.

Finally, the necessarily long and complicated administrative verification procedures that would be required if a distinction were drawn according to the actual origin of the imported goods for the purpose of applying the charge would in themselves constitute unacceptable obstacles to the free movement of goods.

2. Decision 89/688/EEC concerning the dock dues in the French overseas departments is invalid in so far as it authorizes the French Republic to maintain until 31 December 1992 the dock dues arrangements that were in force when the decision was adopted.

Article 227(2) of the Treaty must be interpreted as excluding any possibility, once the Treaty has entered into force, of the Council' s derogating from the application in the French overseas departments of the provisions, in particular those relating to the free movement of goods, applicable to charges having equivalent effect such as dock dues, as mentioned in its first subparagraph; Article 235 of the Treaty cannot be interpreted as allowing the Council to suspend, even temporarily, the immediate application of the provisions referred to in Article 227(2), if its first subparagraph is not to be deprived of its effectiveness.

In so far as the dock dues levied between the date on which Decision 89/688 came into operation and 31 December 1992 were of exactly the same legal nature as those levied before that period, that is to say they were charges having equivalent effect to customs duties levied on the basis of national law, the temporal limitation imposed by the Court in the Legros judgment (Case

C-163/90) applies also to actions for repayment of sums levied as dock dues after the aforesaid decision came into operation until 16 July 1992, the date on which that judgment was given. However, since the French Government could not, after that judgment, reasonably have continued to believe that the relevant national legislation was in conformity with Community law, and since the interests of the local authorities are adequately protected by the temporal limitation set by the Court in the Legros judgment, there is no need to limit the temporal effects of the judgment declaring Decision 89/688/EEC invalid.