Case C-458/07: Action brought on 10 October 2007 — Commission of the European Communities v Portuguese Republic
Date: 2007-12-08
Institutions: Court of Justice
Subjects: European Commission, Portugal, action for failure to fulfil an obligation, dissemination of information, electronic mail, telephone

C 297/30

EN

Official Journal of the European Union

8.12.2007

The Portuguese Republic still has not adopted the measures that
it ought to have adopted in relation to the economic traders to
whom the law contrary to Articles 28 and 30 of the EC Treaty
was applied.

Reference for a preliminary ruling from the Unabhängiger
lodged on
Finanzsenat, Außenstelle Graz (Österreich)

9 October 2007 — Veli Elshani v Hauptzollamt Linz

(Case C-459/07)

(2007/C 297/49)

Language of the case: German

Action brought on 10 October 2007 — Commission of the
European Communities v Portuguese Republic

(Case C-458/07)

(2007/C 297/48)

Referring court

Unabhängiger Finanzsenat, Außenstelle Graz

Language of the case: Portuguese

Parties to the main proceedings

Parties

Applicant: Veli Elshani

Defendant: Hauptzollamt Linz

Applicant: Commission of the European Communities (repre-
sented by: P. Andrade and G. Braun, Agents)

Questions referred

Defendant: Portuguese Republic

Form of order sought

— a declaration that the Portuguese Republic, by failing to
ensure in practice that at least one comprehensive telephone
directory and at least one comprehensive telephone directory
enquiry service are available to all end-users, as laid down in
Articles 5(1) and (2) and 25(1) and (3) of Directive
2002/22/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council
of 7 March 2002 on universal service and users' rights
relating
and
to electronic
services (1), has failed to fulfil
its obligations under that
directive;

communications networks

— an order that the Portuguese Republic should pay the costs.

Pleas in law and main arguments

In Portugal, subscribers to Vodafone who expressed their wish
to have their names included in the universal service directory
are still not included in it.

The regulator, ANACOM, has not yet decided on the form and
procedure for
supplying the information in question. The
present legal situation is the responsibility of the Portuguese
Republic.

(1) OJ L 108, p. 51.

1. The criterion for extinction laid down in point (d) of the first
paragraph of Article 233 of Council Regulation (EEC)
No 2913/92 (1) establishing the Community Customs Code
(‘the Customs Code’) does not refer to the time at which the
customs debt is incurred but to a time after the customs
is incurred, because it presupposes a customs debt
debt
‘incurred’
in accordance with Article 202 of the Customs
Code.

Is the expression ‘upon their unlawful introduction’ within
the meaning of point (d) of the first paragraph of Article 233
of the Customs Code to be interpreted as meaning that:

— the introduction into the customs territory of the Com-
munity of goods in respect of which a customs debt is
incurred in accordance with Article 202 of the Customs
Code ends when they are introduced at
the border
customs office or at any other place designated by the
customs authorities, but at the latest when they leave the
premises of the border customs office or of the otherwise
designated place, because the goods have thus entered
the customs territory, with the result that seizure and
confiscation of
time no longer
the goods after that
results in the extinction of the customs debt,

or as meaning that:

— the introduction into the customs territory of the Com-
munity of goods in respect of which a customs debt is
incurred in accordance with Article 202 of the Customs
Code continues, adopting an economic approach, for as
long as their transport continues as a single process
following the introduction of the goods into the customs
territory, and the goods in the customs territory have not
yet therefore reached their first destination and come to
rest there, with the result that seizure and confiscation of
the goods up to that time results in the extinction of the
customs debt?