OPTICAL, PHOTOGRAPHIC, CINEMATOGRAPHIC, MEASURING, CHECKING, PRECISION, MEDICAL OR SURGICAL INSTRUMENTS AND APPARATUS > OPTICAL, PHOTOGRAPHIC, CINEMATOGRAPHIC, MEASURING, CHECKING, PRECISION, MEDICAL OR SURGICAL INSTRUMENTS AND APPARATUS; PARTS AND ACCESSORIES THEREOF > Orthopaedic appliances, including crutches, surgical belts and trusses; splints and other fracture appliances; artificial parts of the body; hearing aids and other appliances which are worn or carried, or implanted in the body, to compensate for a defect or disability > Orthopaedic or fracture appliances
This chapter does not cover: articles for general technical purposes (e.g. pumps of heading 8413, metal or graphite packings of heading 8484), parts of general use as defined in Note 2 to Section XV (base metal) or similar parts of plastics (Chapter 39), transfer pumps of heading 8413, or weighing machinery of heading 8423. Note 2 (Parts and accessories): Parts and accessories which are goods included in any heading of this chapter or of Chapter 84, 85 or 91 are classified in their respective headings. Other parts and accessories solely or principally used with instruments of this chapter are classified in heading 9033. The chapter covers a very broad range from lenses and prisms (heading 9001) through microscopes, telescopes, lasers, navigational instruments, drawing instruments, measuring instruments, medical instruments, to X-ray apparatus and physical/chemical analysis instruments.
1. This Section does not cover: (a) articles of a kind used in machines, appliances or for other technical uses, of vulcanised rubber other than hard rubber (heading 4016), of leather or of composition leather (heading 4205) or of textile material (heading 5911); (b) supporting belts or other support articles of textile material whose intended effect on the organ to be supported or held derives solely from their elasticity (for example, maternity belts, thoracic support bandages, abdominal support bandages, supports for joints or muscles) (Section XI); (c) refractory goods of heading 6903; ceramics for laboratory, chemical or other technical uses of heading 6909; (d) glass mirrors, not optically worked, of heading 7009, or mirrors of base metal or of precious metal, not being optical elements (heading 8306 or Chapter 71); (e) goods of heading 7007, 7008, 7011, 7014, 7015 or 7017; (f) parts of general use, as defined in Note 2 to Section XV, of base metal (Section XV) or similar goods of plastics (Chapter 39); however, articles specially designed for use exclusively as parts of specific instruments or apparatus are excluded from this category; (g) pumps, compressors and fans (heading 8413, 8414 or 8421); (h) weighing machinery (heading 8423); lifting machinery (headings 8425 to 8428); (ij) paper- or paperboard-cutting machines (heading 8441); fittings for adjusting work or tools on machine tools or water-jet cutting machines, of heading 8466, including fittings with optical devices for reading scales (e.g. 'optical' dividing heads) but not those which are in themselves essentially optical instruments (e.g. alignment telescopes); (k) articles of Chapter 95. 2. Subject to Note 1 above, parts and accessories for machines, apparatus, instruments or articles of this Section are to be classified according to the following rules: (a) parts and accessories which are goods included in any of the headings of this Section or of Section XV, XVI or XVII are in all cases to be classified in their respective headings; (b) other parts and accessories, if suitable for use solely or principally with a particular kind of machine, instrument or apparatus, or with a number of machines, instruments or apparatus of the same heading, are to be classified with the machines, instruments or apparatus of that kind; (c) all other parts and accessories are to be classified in heading 9033.
Source: European Commission - CN Explanatory Notes (CNEN) and HS legal notes.
Annex 22-01 DA 2015/2446
T-313/25
3 Jun 2026Kinova Europe GmbH v Hauptzollamt Hannover
On those grounds, THE GENERAL COURT (Fifth Chamber, sitting with five Judges) hereby rules: Heading 9021 of the Combined Nomenclature set out 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, in the version resulting from Commission Implementing Regulation (EU) 2019/1776 of 9 October 2019, must be interpreted as meaning that the expressions ‘orthopaedic appliances’ and ‘other appliances which are worn or carried, or implanted in the body, to compensate for a defect or disability’, referred to by that heading, do not cover a robotic arm attached to an electric wheelchair which is operated by means of a joystick or a head control in order to perform movements imitating the movements of a human arm to handle certain objects. Papasavvas Sampol Pucurull Laitenberger Stancu Valasidis Delivered in open court in Luxembourg on 3 June 2026. [Signatures] * Language of the case: German.
C-677/18
19 Dec 2019Amoena Ltd v Commissioners for Her Majesty's Revenue and Customs
On those grounds, the Court (Tenth Chamber) hereby rules: The examination of the questions referred has not revealed any elements capable of affecting the validity of Commission Implementing Regulation (EU) 2017/1167 of 26 June 2017 concerning the classification of certain goods in the Combined Nomenclature. Jarukaitis Juhász Lycourgos Delivered in open court in Luxembourg on 19 December 2019. A. Calot Escobar Registrar I. Jarukaitis President of the Tenth Chamber ( *1 ) Language of the case: English.
C-138/18
16 May 2019Skatteministeriet v Estron A/S
On those grounds, the Court (Sixth Chamber) hereby rules: 1. Note 2(a) to Chapter 90 of the Combined Nomenclature 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 Commission Regulation (EC) No 1031/2008 of 19 September 2008, read in conjunction with General Rules Nos 1 and 6 for the interpretation of the Combined Nomenclature, must be interpreted as meaning that the expression ‘Parts and accessories which are goods included in any of the headings of this chapter or of Chapter 84, 85 or 91’ in that note refers only to the four-digit headings of those chapters. 2. It is for the referring court to classify the hearing aid connectors at issue in the main proceedings for customs purposes in the light of the indications provided by the Court in answer to the questions that the referring court referred to it for a preliminary ruling. 3. Note 1(m) to Section XVI of the Combined Nomenclature in Annex I to Regulation No 2658/87, as amended by Regulation No 1031/2008, must be interpreted as meaning that, where goods are included in Chapter 90, they cannot also be included in Chapters 84 and 85 thereof. [Signatures] ( *1 ) Language of the case: Danish.