SC ALKA CO SRL v Autoritatea Națională a Vămilor - Direcția Regională pentru Accize și Operațiuni Vamale Galați and Direcţia Generală a Finanţelor Publice a Municipiului București.
Date: 2015-04-23
33. As a preliminary point, it must be borne in mind that, when the Court is requested to give a preliminary ruling on a matter of tariff classification, its task is to provide the national court with guidance on the criteria which will enable the latter to classify the products at issue correctly in the CN, rather than to effect that classification itself, a fortiori  since the Court does not necessarily have available to it all the information which is essential in that regard. In any event the national court is in a better position to do so (see, inter alia, judgment in Panasonic Italia and Others , C‑472/12, EU:C:2014:2082, paragraph 32 and the case-law cited).
34. It will thus be for the referring court to classify the products at issue in the main proceedings in the light of the answers provided by the Court to the questions it has referred (judgment in Panasonic Italia and Others , C‑472/12, EU:C:2014:2082, paragraph 33 and the case-law cited).
35. Furthermore, it is apparent from the Commission’s written observations and those made by the parties at the hearing that, in the light of the judgment in Sunshine Deutschland Handelsgesellschaft (C‑229/06, EU:C:2007:239, paragraphs 30 to 32), the classification of the pumpkin seeds at issue in the main proceedings under heading 1212 of the CN might also be relevant.
37. It follows from the Court’s settled case-law that, in the interests of legal certainty and ease of verification, the decisive criterion for the classification of goods for customs purposes is in general to be sought in their objective characteristics and properties as defined in the wording of the relevant heading of the CN and in the section or chapter notes. The objective characteristics and properties of products must be capable of being assessed at the time of customs clearance (see, to that effect, judgment in Panasonic Italia and Others , C‑472/12, EU:C:2014:2082, paragraphs 35 and 36 and the case-law cited).
40. Account must also be taken of the explanatory notes to the CN and to the HS which, in accordance with the Court’s settled case-law, are, for their part, an important aid for interpreting the scope of the various tariff headings but do not have legally binding force. The wording of those notes must therefore be consistent with the provisions of the CN and cannot alter their scope (see, inter alia, judgment in Sunshine Deutschland Handelsgesellschaft , C‑229/06, EU:C:2007:239, paragraph 27).
55. The Court has already stated that heading 1209, entitled ‘Seeds, fruits and spores, of a kind used for sowing’, relates only to plant matter having the ability to germinate and create a new plant. By contrast, heading 1212 is a residual category covering plant seeds which are intended, not to be sown, but for human consumption (judgment in Sunshine Deutschland Handelsgesellschaft , C‑229/06, EU:C:2007:239, paragraph 30).
56. Thus, the Court has held that shelled pumpkin seeds which have lost their ability to germinate and which are intended for use in the baking industry come under subheading 1212 99 80 of the CN (judgment in Sunshine Deutschland Handelsgesellschaft , C‑229/06, EU:C:2007:239, paragraph 32).