SIA „Oniors Bio" v Valsts ieņēmumu dienests.
Date: 2016-04-28
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The customs classification of goods imported into the European Union is governed by the CN. The CN is based on the Harmonised Commodity Description and Coding System (‘the HS’), drawn up by the Customs Cooperation Council, now the World Customs Organisation (WCO), and established by the convention creating that council, concluded in Brussels on 15 December 1950. The HS is established by the International Convention on the Harmonised Commodity Description and Coding System, concluded in Brussels on 14 June 1983 and approved, with its amending protocol of 24 June 1986, on behalf of the European Economic Community by Council Decision 87/369/EEC of 7 April 1987 (OJ 1987 L 198, p. 1). The CN reproduces the headings and subheadings of the HS to six digits, with only the seventh and eighth digits creating further subheadings which are specific to it.
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As a preliminary point, it should be recalled, first, that, when the Court is requested to give a preliminary ruling on a matter of classification for customs purposes, 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 (judgment in Lukoyl Neftohim Burgas, C‑330/13, EU:C:2014:1757, paragraph 27 and the case-law cited).
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Second, it must be stated that, according to settled case-law, in the procedure laid down by Article 267 TFEU, providing for cooperation between national courts and the Court of Justice, it is for the latter to provide the referring court with an answer which will be of use to it and enable it to determine the case before it. With this in mind, the Court may have to reformulate the questions referred to it (judgment in Lukoyl Neftohim Burgas, C‑330/13, EU:C:2014:1757, paragraph 29 and the case-law cited).
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It is appropriate in this regard to bear in mind the settled case-law, according to which, in the interests of legal certainty and ease of verification, the decisive criterion for the tariff classification of goods 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 (judgment in Delphi Deutschland, C‑423/10, EU:C:2011:315, paragraph 23 and the case-law cited).
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According to equally settled case-law, the intended use of a product may also constitute an objective criterion for classification if it is inherent to the product, and that inherent character must be capable of being assessed on the basis of the product’s objective characteristics and properties (see judgments in Agroferm, C‑568/11, EU:C:2013:407, paragraph 41, and in Oliver Medical, C‑547/13, EU:C:2015:139, paragraph 47). Moreover, the intended use of the product is a relevant criterion only where the classification can be made on the sole basis of the objective characteristics and properties of the product (judgment in Skoma-Lux, C‑339/09, EU:C:2010:781, paragraph 47).
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In this regard, first, the judgment in Evroetil (C‑503/10, EU:C:2011:872), cited by the referring court, is not such as to alter that finding. The case giving rise to that judgment concerned the concept of ‘denaturing’ and not the distinction between edible and inedible mixtures. In that case, the Court concluded that a product that had not been denatured pursuant to a process among those laid down by the applicable provision could not benefit from the exemption from excise duty at issue in that case, even though that product contained substances making it unfit for human consumption (see, to that effect, judgment in Evroetil, C‑503/10, EU:C:2011:872, paragraph 66). In the present case, however, the wording of CN subheading 1518 00 31 covers not only mixtures of vegetable oils which have been denatured pursuant to certain processes but, generally, inedible mixtures of vegetable oils.
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In order to establish whether such a mixture is intended for food use or for non-food use, it is appropriate to take account of all the relevant factors relating to the objective characteristics and properties inherent in that product. It is for the importer, at the time of importation, to prove the use referred to for the product at issue in the declaration which it submits to the competent customs authorities (see, by analogy, judgment in Oliver Medical, C‑547/13, EU:C:2015:139, paragraph 51).
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The classification alone of such a mixture as ‘edible’, for the purposes of the application of the CN and the collection of appropriate customs duties, does not, by itself, automatically mean that it is placed on the market as a product intended for human consumption. As has already been stated, Article 14 of Regulation No 178/2002 prohibits the placing on the market of ‘food’ which is dangerous, that is, injurious to health or unfit for human consumption. However, an opinion from the competent national authority for matters relating to foodstuffs, according to which a mixture of vegetable oils such as that at issue in the main proceedings is unfit for human consumption, is one factor among others to be taken into consideration by the authority or the competent national court for the purpose of classifying that mixture under the appropriate CN heading (see, by analogy, judgment in Oliver Medical, C‑547/13, EU:C:2015:139, paragraph 53).