Gegenstand
Reference for a preliminary ruling – Customs union – Common Customs Tariff – Combined Nomenclature – Tariff classification – Optical fibre cables – Subheadings 8544 70 00 and 9001 10 90 – Amendment of the Explanatory Notes to the Combined Nomenclature – Principles of legal certainty and protection of legitimate expectations
Zusammenfassung und Tenor
On those grounds, the Court (Eighth Chamber) hereby rules: 1. Subheading 85447000 of the Combined Nomenclature contained in Annex I to Council Regulation (EEC) No 2658/87 of 23 July 1987 on the tariff and statistical nomenclature and on the Common Customs Tariff, as amended by Council Regulation (EC) No 254/2000 of 31 January 2000 in the version resulting from Commission Implementing Regulation (EU) 2017/1925 of 12 October 2017 must be interpreted as meaning that it does not cover an optical fibre cable consisting of an optical core and optical cladding, covered with a first soft inner acrylate coating and a second coloured hard outer acrylate sheathing. 2. The principles of legal certainty and the protection of legitimate expectations must be interpreted as meaning that they do not preclude the recovery, by the customs authorities of a Member State, of the duties and taxes owed by a taxpayer as a result of the erroneous classification, according to those authorities, of a product under a subheading of the Combined Nomenclature appearing in Annex I to Regulation No 2658/87, as amended by Regulation No 254/2000, in the version resulting from Implementing Regulation 2017/1925, even if binding tariff information decisions issued to other taxpayers, by those authorities and by the customs authorities of other Member States, and decisions by courts of other Member States did not deviate from that tariff classification. [Signatures] ( *1 ) Language of the case: Romanian.