Summary
- Preliminary Ruling Request: Federal Fiscal Court of Germany referred questions to the ECJ regarding customs valuation costs on 8 January 2025, published on 17 March 2025.
- Costs Under Review: The case examines whether design costs for packaging, production of printing templates, and purchase commissions should be included in the customs value per Article 71 of the Union Customs Code.
- Printing Templates: The court questions if costs for printing templates provided free to suppliers should be added to the customs value.
- Commission Inclusion: It seeks clarification on whether commissions paid for acquiring additional materials (not for goods) should be included in the customs value.
- Valuation of Sets: The court aims to determine if goods classified as a set should be valued as a single unit or separately for customs purposes.
Questions referred
Must the cost of production, in the customs territory of the European Union, of printing templates for containers be added to the transaction value under Article 32(1)(a)(ii) of [Council Regulation (EEC) No 2913/92 of 12 October 1992 establishing the Community Customs Code (‘the Customs Code’)] 1 / Article 71(1)(a)(ii) of [Regulation (EU) No 952/2013 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 9 October 2013 laying down the Union Customs Code (recast) (‘the Union Customs Code’)], 2 or in accordance with Article 32(1)(b)(iv) of the Customs Code / Article 71(1)(b)(iv) of the Union Customs Code, if the buyer established in the customs territory of the European Union makes the printing templates available free of charge in electronic form to the suppliers of the containers based in the third country?
Must the cost of production, in the customs territory of the European Union, of printing templates for supplies be added to the transaction value under Article 32(1)(b)(i) of the Customs Code / Article 71(1)(b)(i) of the Union Customs Code, if the buyer established in the customs territory of the European Union makes the printing templates available free of charge in electronic form to the suppliers of those supplies based in the third country?
Is the criterion ‘value […] of the materials […] incorporated in the imported goods’, as referred to in Article 32(1)(b)(i) of the Customs Code / Article 71(1)(b)(i) of the Union Customs Code, to be interpreted as meaning that the value of an intellectual service rendered within the customs territory of the European Union that is used to produce a material supply is to be included in the value of the material supply, or is such an addition governed exclusively by Article 32(1)(b)(iv) of the Customs Code / Article 71(1)(b)(iv) of the Union Customs Code?
Are buying commissions to be included in the value of supplies under Article 71(1)(b)(i) of the Union Customs Code in so far as those buying commissions are paid in connection with the purchase of the supplied materials but not for the purchase of the goods as such?
Does it follow from a classification as a set on the basis of the General Rule for the Interpretation of the Combined Nomenclature 3(b) that that set must also be regarded as a unit for the purposes of customs valuation law?
Source
