Case C-568/11: Judgment of the Court (Second Chamber) of 20 June 2013 (request for a preliminary ruling from the Vestre Landsret — Denmark) — Agroferm A/S v Ministeriet for Fødevarer, Landbrug og Fiskeri (Tariff classification — Combined Nomenclature — Sugar-based product consisting of 65 % lysine sulphate and 35 % impurities resulting from the manufacturing process — Regulation (EC) No 1719/2005 — Regulation (EC) No 1265/2001 — Production refund on certain products used in the chemical industry — Community aid wrongly paid — Repayment — Principle of the protection of legitimate expectations)
Date: 2013-06-20
Institutions: Court of Justice
Subjects: Combined Nomenclature, Denmark, EU aid, chemical industry, interpretation of the law, reimbursement of aid, sugar product








C_2013225EN.01001501.xml










3.8.2013   


EN


Official Journal of the European Union


C 225/15





Judgment of the Court (Second Chamber) of 20 June 2013 (request for a preliminary ruling from the Vestre Landsret — Denmark) — Agroferm A/S v Ministeriet for Fødevarer, Landbrug og Fiskeri
(Case C-568/11) (1)

(Tariff classification - Combined Nomenclature - Sugar-based product consisting of 65 % lysine sulphate and 35 % impurities resulting from the manufacturing process - Regulation (EC) No 1719/2005 - Regulation (EC) No 1265/2001 - Production refund on certain products used in the chemical industry - Community aid wrongly paid - Repayment - Principle of the protection of legitimate expectations)
2013/C 225/23
Language of the case: Danish

Referring court

Vestre Landsret

Parties to the main proceedings


Applicant: Agroferm A/S

Defendant: Ministeriet for Fødevarer, Landbrug og Fiskeri

Re:

Request for a preliminary ruling — Vestre Landsret — Interpretation of Commission Regulation (EC) No 1719/2005 of 27 October 2005 amending Annex I to Council Regulation (EEC) No 2658/87 on the tariff and statistical nomenclature and on the Common Customs Tariff (OJ 2005 L 286, p. 1) and of Commission Regulation (EC) No 1265/2001 of 27 June 2001 laying down detailed rules for the application of Council Regulation (EC) No 1260/2001 as regards granting the production refund on certain sugar products used in the chemical industry (OJ 2001 L 178, p. 63) — Tariff classification for the purposes of granting the production refund on certain sugar products used in the chemical industry — Sugar-based product manufactured by fermentation with the aid of Corynebacterium glutamicum bacteria and consisting of 65 % lysine sulphate and impurities resulting from the manufacturing process — Classification under headings 2309, 2922 or 3824 of the Combined Nomenclature — Community aid wrongly paid

Operative part of the judgment







1.


The Combined Nomenclature listed in Annex I to Council Regulation (EEC) No 2658/87 of 23 July 1987 on the tariff and statistical nomenclature and on the Common Customs Tariff, as amended by Commission Regulation (EC) No 1719/2005 of 27 October 2005, must be interpreted as meaning that a product composed of lysine sulphate and impurities resulting from the manufacturing process must be classified under heading 2309 as a preparation of a kind used in animal feeding;










2.


The principle of the protection of legitimate expectations must be interpreted as meaning that it does not preclude, in a situation such as that in the main proceedings, the national customs authorities from, first, seeking repayment of a wrongly paid amount of lysine sulphate production refunds that the producer has already received and, second, refusing to pay production refunds on that product which those authorities had given undertakings to that producer to pay.






(1)  OJ C 25, 28.1.2012.