Commission of the European Communities v Federal Republic of Germany.
Date: 1988-09-27
5 It should be observed in the first place that, as the Court has held on a number of occasions, the justification for the prohibition of customs duties and any charges having an equivalent effect lies in the fact that any pecuniary charge, however small, imposed on goods by reason of the fact that they cross a frontier, constitutes an obstacle to the movement of goods which is aggravated by the resulting administrative formalities . It follows that any pecuniary charge, whatever its designation and mode of application, which is imposed unilaterally on goods by reason of the fact that they cross a frontier and is not a customs duty in the strict sense constitutes a charge having an equivalent effect to a customs duty within the meaning of Articles 9, 12, 13 and 16 of the Treaty .
6 However, the Court has held that such a charge escapes that classification if it relates to a general system of internal dues applied systematically and in accordance with the same criteria to domestic products and imported products alike ( judgment of 31 May 1979 in Case 132/78 Denkavit v France (( 1979 )) ECR 1923 ), if it constitutes payment for a service in fact rendered to the economic operator of a sum in proportion to the service ( judgment of 9 November 1983 in Case 158/82 Commission v Denmark (( 1983 )) ECR 3573 ), or again, subject to certain conditions, if it attaches to inspections carried out to fulfil obligations imposed by Community law ( judgment of 25 January 1977 in Case 46/76 Bauhuis v Netherlands (( 1977 )) ECR 5 ).
7 The contested fee, which is payable on importation and transit, cannot be regarded as relating to a general system of internal dues . Nor does it constitute payment for a service rendered to the operator, because this condition is satisfied only if the operator in question obtains a definite specific benefit ( see judgment of 1 July 1969 in Case 24/68 Commission v Italy (( 1969 )) ECR 193 ), which is not the case if the inspection serves to guarantee, in the public interest, the health and life of animals in international transport ( see judgment of 20 March 1984 in Case 314/82 Commission v Belgium (( 1984 )) ECR 1543 ).
8 Since the contested fee was charged in connection with inspections carried out pursuant to a Community provision, it should be noted that according to the case-law of the Court ( judgment of 25 January 1977 in Bauhuis, cited above; judgment of 12 July 1977 Commission v Netherlands (( 1977 )) ECR 1355; judgment of 31 January 1984 in Case 1/83 IFG v Freistaat Bayern (( 1984 )) ECR 349 ) such fees may not be classified as charges having an effect equivalent to a customs duty if the following conditions are satisfied :
( a ) they do not exceed the actual costs of the inspections in connection with which they are charged;
( b ) the inspections in question are obligatory and uniform for all the products concerned in the Community;
( c ) they are prescribed by Community law in the general interest of the Community;
( d ) they promote the free movement of goods, in particular by neutralizing obstacles which could arise from unilateral measures of inspection adopted in accordance with Article 36 of the Treaty .
14 In this respect, it should be noted that since the fee in question is intended solely as the financially and economically justified compensation for an obligation imposed in equal measure on all the Member States by Community law, it cannot be regarded as equivalent to a customs duty; nor, consequently, can it fall within the ambit of the prohibition laid down in Articles 9 and 12 of the Treaty .
15 The negative effects which such a fee may have on the free movement of goods in the Community can be eliminated only by virtue of Community provisions providing for the harmonization of fees, or imposing the obligation on the Member States to bear the costs entailed in the inspections or, finally, establishing that the costs in question are to be paid out of the Community budget .