Customs union EU VAT case law

6 cases of the Court of Justice and the General Court of the European Union on this point of VAT law, from 2010 to 2026.

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Provisions these cases interpret most

Article 71 of Directive 2006/112/EC Importation of goods · 3 of these cases
Article 2 of Directive 2006/112/EC Subject matter and scope · 3 of these cases
Article 201 of Directive 2006/112/EC Persons liable for payment of VAT to the tax authorities · 2 of these cases
Article 85 of Directive 2006/112/EC Importation of goods · 2 of these cases
Article 70 of Directive 2006/112/EC Importation of goods · 2 of these cases
Article 30 of Directive 2006/112/EC Importation of goods · 2 of these cases
Article 31 of Implementing Regulation (EU) No 282/2011 Place of supply of services · 1 of these cases
Article 74 of Directive 2006/112/EC Supply of goods or services · 1 of these cases

The 6 cases, most recent first

Under each case, what the Court decided, from its summary. The summaries are AI-generated and are not official documents: open the case for the Court’s own text.

C-72/24 Keladis I and Keladis II

Judgment · 29 January 2026 · Greece

Statistical "lowest acceptable price" as basis for import VAT valuation

Threshold prices are usable, but only as a last resort under the fall-back method (Article 31(1) CCC, Article 74(3) UCC), not under the deductive method, and only if the operator was given the opportunity to justify the lower declared prices. Otherwise the practice becomes a prohibited system of minimum values. The underlying imports must be at or about the same time, the 90 day period applying by analogy with reasonable flexibility. Tariff grouping requested by the declarant continues to apply on revaluation. Member States may make the deemed owner liable for import VAT if national law says so explicitly and unequivocally. Relevant to importers of low-value consumer goods, particularly textiles and clothing, and to advisers handling undervaluation audits.

C-368/21 Hauptzollamt Hamburg (Place where VAT is incurred – II)

Judgment · 8 September 2022 · Germany

Place of importation of a vehicle brought in unlawfully

The place of importation is the Member State in which the person who failed to comply with the customs obligations resides and actually uses the vehicle. Physical entry into the European Union and first use in another Member State are not decisive where that use served merely to move the vehicle to its final destination for actual and permanent use. A vehicle cannot be "consumed". Residence of the user is an indicator of where it enters the economic network. Confirms and extends Hauptzollamt Münster (C-7/20).

C-714/20 U.I. (Indirect customs representative)

Judgment · 12 May 2022 · Italy

Liability of the indirect customs representative for import VAT

Article 77(3) of the Customs Code covers customs debt only. Import VAT is not an import duty, so that provision alone makes the indirect representative liable for customs duties, not import VAT. Under Article 201 Member States retain a free choice and may designate the representative as jointly and severally liable, but only through national provisions that do so explicitly and unequivocally, consistently with legal certainty. Whether the Italian provisions do so is for the national court. Customs agents, freight forwarders and clearance brokers acting as indirect representatives cannot be assessed for import VAT by simple analogy with the customs debt.

C-7/20 Hauptzollamt Münster (Place where VAT is incurred)

Judgment · 3 March 2021 · Germany

Member State where import VAT arises on undeclared goods

Import VAT arises in the Member State where the customs breach is established, but only where the goods entered the economic network of the Union in that Member State. Physical first entry elsewhere does not displace that result. The presumption that goods entered the economic network where the breach occurred can be rebutted by showing they were introduced for consumption via another Member State, as in Federal Express, where mere transhipment took place. Confirms that competence for import VAT follows economic consumption, not the deemed place of the customs debt.

C-26/18 Federal Express Corporation Deutsche Niederlassung

Judgment · 10 July 2019 · Germany

Place of import VAT where customs irregularities occur in a transit Member State

The first question was inadmissible as hypothetical, since the goods demonstrably entered the economic network. On the second, customs infringements in a Member State which generate a customs debt there do not suffice to locate entry into the Union economic network in that State. The presumption of entry where goods are unlawfully introduced or removed from supervision is rebuttable. Where the goods are shown to have been carried onwards to another Member State, their final destination, and consumed there, import VAT arises only in that latter State.

C-248/09 Pakora Pluss

Judgment · 29 July 2010 · Latvia

Import VAT and the accession transitional regime for goods in transport

The accession regime is exhaustive for goods in transport on 01-05-2004 and requires three cumulative conditions: export procedure completed, release for free circulation, and proof of preferential origin or Community status. Article 448 steps cannot substitute for the export formalities. The Customs Code applied in the new Member States from 01-05-2004, but the duty-free accession regime cannot be invoked where those formalities were not completed. Import duties under Article 4(10) do not include import VAT. Import VAT is payable by the person designated or accepted as liable by the Member State of importation. Confirms that import VAT sits outside the customs concept of import duties even though duties enter the import VAT taxable amount, and that liability for import VAT is a matter of national designation rather than automatically attaching to the transit principal under customs rules.