The Court of Justice of the European Union Clarifies the Relationship Between Customs Value and Delivery Costs of Goods - Global Trade and Customs Journal View The Court of Justice of the European Union Clarifies the Relationship Between Customs Value and Delivery Costs of Goods by - Global Trade and Customs Journal The Court of Justice of the European Union Clarifies the Relationship Between Customs Value and Delivery Costs of Goods 17 1

The Union Customs Code (UCC) regulates the customs value of goods to be used for the purpose of the import declaration by identifying it with the ‘transaction value’, i.e., the price paid or payable for the goods when they are sold for export to the customs territory of the Union. To this calculation basis, in order to determine the amount of duties, additional elements must be added, such as transport costs to the Union border. The parties often resort to the delivery conditions codified in the ‘Incoterms’ published periodically by the International Chamber of Commerce of Paris, in order to clearly share the risks and responsibilities associated with transport. The UCC, however, does not cover the relationship between the customs value and the ‘Incoterms’, in particular in the case of returns of ‘Group D’ (for example: DAP – Delivered at place, or ‘delivered at the place of destination’), when the transport costs are borne by the transferor and not by the importing buyer: the Court of Justice, with the ruling of 22 April 2021, given in case C-75/20, Lifosa UAB, addressed the issue for the first time, clarifying that the relevant provisions of the code (in particular, Article 70, paragraph 1, and Article 71, paragraph 1, letter e, point i) must be interpreted as meaning that, in order to determine the customs value of imported goods, it is not necessary to add to their transaction value the costs actually incurred by the manufacturer for the transport of these goods to the place of their introduction into the customs territory of the European Union when, according to the agreed upon conditions of delivery, the obligation to cover these expenses is incumbent on the manufacturer, and this even if said expenses exceed the price actually paid by the importer, when this price corresponds to the real value of said goods.

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