EU Court of Justice on tariff classification of television-signal devices, modems 

November 26:   The Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) issued a judgment in joined cases concerning the tariff classification of an apparatus capable of receiving television signals and incorporating a modem for gaining access to the internet and having a function of interactive information exchange. Digitalnet OOD, C 320/11 and C 383/11 (22 November 2012)

Read the judgment: Digitalnet


The CJEU held that:


  • The Combined Nomenclature of the EC on the tariff classification must be interpreted as meaning that a modem for gaining access to the internet is a device which, alone and without the intervention of any other apparatus or mechanism, is capable of accessing the internet and of providing interactivity and an exchange of information in both directions. It is solely the capacity to gain access to the internet, and not the technique used to achieve this, that is relevant for the purposes of classification under that subheading of the Common Nomenclature.
  • That Combined Nomenclature (CN) must be interpreted as meaning that the reception of television signals and the presence of a modem allowing access to the internet are two equivalent functions that apparatus must perform in order to be classified under CN subheading 8528 71 13. Absent that, the apparatus must be classified under CN subheading 8528 71 19.
  • The Community Customs Code must be interpreted as meaning that ex post inspection of goods and the subsequent change in tariff classification may be made on the basis of written documents without the customs authorities being required to physically check those goods.


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