ECJ BELGIUM DUTY CASE
March 1st, 2005
BY KEITH NUTHALLSMUGGLERS are liable for customs duties on goods presented to excise officials in the European Union, which are used to conceal more valuable undeclared tobacco, the European Court of Justice has ruled. Captured smugglers - allowed into the country in a controlled delivery operation - had tried to sneak into Belgium 7 million cigarettes behind 29 cases of cooking utensils. Despite being prosecuted, the smugglers refused to pay duty on any of these goods, because they had been wrongly declared. And although judges agreed no money was actually owed ...
Full access to this article can be arranged with permission from the client that first ordered it. Please contact us to request access. Entries are uploaded to our archive at least one year after being published by a client – free access is restricted to International News Services journalists for background research only. The article date indicates when copy was filed to a client, not when posted to this archive. Upon client requests, International News Services will remove such articles from the archive or not upload them in the first place. They are included to demonstrate the breadth of topics undertaken by the agency and also to help promote clients’ coverage.