CELEX: C1997/318/34
Language: en
Date: 1997-10-18 00:00:00
Title: Action brought on 24 June 1997 by Kaufring AG against the Commission of the European Communities (Case T-186/97)

18 . 10 . 97            EN                  Official Journal of the European Communities                                   C 318/ 17
and a manifest error of assessment in that neither the Joint           and the acceptance of the A.TR.l movement certificate,
Committee nor the investigating authority sought to place              the Turkish customs authorities had charged no
the allegations in proper perspective by weighing them                 proportionate duty on components of third country origin,
against the applicant's service record, although the                   Member States were called upon by the Commission to
excellence of that record could and should have served as              effect post-clearance recovery of duties on colour
a mitigating factor, leading to greater clemency in the                television sets imported from Turkey. The applicant lodged
decision adopted.                                                      a complaint at the Hauptzollamt Krefeld against the
                                                                       revised assessment notice which followed, and claimed
                                                                       remission of the duties claimed retrospectively.
(') Case T- 14 1 /97 Bernard Yasse v. BEI.
                                                                       Intensive correspondence followed between the applicant
                                                                       and the Federal Ministry of Finance, the Federal Ministry
                                                                       of Finance and the Turkish Government, and with the
                                                                       Commission .
Action brought on 24 June 1997 by Kaufring AG against
        the Commission of the European Communities
                                                                       In August 1996, the Federal Republic of Germany referred
                          ( Case T-186/97)                             to the Commission for a ruling pursuant to Article 13 of
                            ( 97/C 318/34 )                            Council Regulation ( EEC) No 1430/79 on the repayment
                                                                       or remission of import or export duties as to whether it
                                                                       was justified to remit the import duties in this case .
                  (Language of the case: German)
                                                                       The Commission thereupon issued the contested decision
An action against the Commission of the European                       of 19 February 1997, addressed to Germany, to the effect
Communities was brought before the Court of First                      that remission of import duties in the applicant's case was
Instance of the European Communities on 24 June 1997                   not justified .
by Kaufring AG, whose registered office is at Dusseldorf,
represented by Dietrich Ehle , Rechtsanwalt, Cologne, with
an address for service in Luxembourg at the Chambers of                The applicant takes the view that the import duties
Marc Lucius, 6 rue Michel Welter, Luxembourg.                          imposed on the value of the finished colour television sets
                                                                       must be remitted . It alleges infringement of the duty to
                                                                       state reasons pursuant to Article 190 of the EC Treaty,
The applicant claims that the Court should:                            and of its rights to be heard and put forward arguments in
                                                                       its defence at the time the contested decision was adopted.
— annul         Commission        Decision   REM      15/96    of
     19 February 1997, refusing the remission of a payment             The applicant further argues that the Commission based
     of DM 545 727,35,                                                 its decision only on Article 13 of Regulation ( EEC )
                                                                       No 1430/79 , and in applying that provision committed
                                                                       obvious legal and factual errors, especially a clearly
— order the Commission to pay the costs .                              erroneous determination and assessment of the facts . In
                                                                       particular, the Commission was clearly wrong to
                                                                       determinate that the completed A.TR.l movement
                                                                       certificates    did not constitute  a  fact on which the
 Pleas in law and main arguments adduced in support:
                                                                       applicant was entitled to rely by way of 'special
                                                                       circumstances'. Neither the Turkish exporters nor the
                                                                       applicant as importer could be accused of 'obvious
 During the period from September to December 1992, the                negligence' or any other fault.
 applicant imported a number of consignments of colour
 television sets from Turkey, which were produced there
 using parts which came partly from third countries
 (particularly Korea and Japan). The applicant had bought              Finally, the applicant argues that the Commission was
 the sets before importation from Crown Europe GmbH in                 manifestly in error, when applying Article 13 of
 Gelsenkirchen .      On    the   basis  of A.TR.l     movement         Regulation ( EEC ) No 1430/79, in failing to apply also the
 certificates which were produced and found by the Haupt­              principles of proportionality, equal treatment and
 zollamt Krefeld to be in order, no duties were levied on               reasonableness . The applicant as importer has, it
 the applicant's importation of the sets.                               maintains, been retrospectively burdened with duties the
                                                                        non-levying of which fell clearly outside the area of risks
                                                                        it can be expected to bear.
 After the Commission carried out an investigation in 1993
 of various colour television manufacturers in Turkey, and
 established that, on the exportation of the television sets