Case C-546/13: Request for a preliminary ruling from the Corte suprema di cassazione (Italy) lodged on 22 October 2013 — Agenzia delle Dogane and Ufficio di Verona dell’Agenzia delle Dogane v ADL American Dataline Srl
Date: 2013-10-22
Institutions: Court of Justice
Subjects: data processing, import (EU), principle of legal certainty, sound reproduction equipment








C_2013377EN.01000702.xml










21.12.2013   


EN


Official Journal of the European Union


C 377/7





Request for a preliminary ruling from the Corte suprema di cassazione (Italy) lodged on 22 October 2013 — Agenzia delle Dogane and Ufficio di Verona dell’Agenzia delle Dogane v ADL American Dataline Srl
(Case C-546/13)
2013/C 377/15
Language of the case: Italian

Referring court

Corte suprema di cassazione

Parties to the main proceedings


Appellants: Agenzia delle Dogane, Ufficio di Verona dell’Agenzia delle Dogane

Respondent: ADL American Dataline Srl

Questions referred







1.


Is it contrary to Articles 10(2) and 12 of Council Regulation (EEC) No 2658/87 of 23 July 1987 (1) and to the principle of legal certainty to interpret the amendments made to the Explanatory Notes accompanying Chapter 84 of the Schedule of Customs duties set out in Part II of Annex I thereto by Commission Regulation (EC) No 1549/06 of 17 October 2006 (2) (which excludes loudspeakers from heading 8471 where they are presented separately from automatic data-processing machines) in order to find that the goods imported by ADL American Dataline s.r.l. (3) … perform a specific function (reproduction and amplification of sound) ‘other’ than data processing?










2.


Must the goods imported by ADL American Dataline s.r.l. …, namely, ‘loudspeakers’ marketed separately from automatic data-processing machines, be regarded as devices ‘performing a specific function other than data processing’ — assuming that the reproduction and amplification of sound … must be regarded as such — or is it not possible to regard them as system units performing a specific function other than data processing, since, having regard to their specific technical characteristics (connection only via USB cable; operating system MAC OS 9 required), they ‘have no function which they would be capable of performing without the assistance of such a machine [that is to say, without the assistance of an automatic data-processing machine’ (see Case C-339/98 Peacock AG [2000] ECR I-8947, paragraphs 14 and 15, and Case C-142/06 Olicom [2007] ECR I-6675, paragraphs 20, 29 and 30, which, although referring to other types of device — network cards and ‘combination’ cards — seem to indicate that a lack of any ‘other’ specific function stems from the fact that (i) the device cannot function without a personal computer and (ii) the device has the capacity to accept and to convert at output signals transmitted by the processor)?






(1)  Council Regulation (EEC) No 2658/87 of 23 July 1987 on the tariff and statistical nomenclature and on the Common Customs Tariff (OJ 1987 L 256, p. 1).

(2)  Commission Regulation (EC) No 1549/2006 of 17 October 2006 amending Annex I to Council Regulation (EEC) No 2658/87 on the tariff and statistical nomenclature and on the Common Customs Tariff (OJ 2006 L 301, p. 1).

(3)  ‘[L]oudspeakers produced by the US company Harman Multimedia for exclusive use as output peripheral units for “APPLE” computers’.