Case C‑590/16
European Commission
v
Hellenic Republic
(Failure of a Member State to fulfil obligations — Directive 2008/118/EC — Article 7 — General arrangements for excise duty — Supply of petroleum products, without charging excise duty — Filling stations at the border of the Hellenic Republic with third countries — Chargeability of excise duty — Concept of ‘release for consumption’ of excise goods — Concept of ‘departure from a duty suspension arrangement’)
Summary — Judgment of the Court (Sixth Chamber), 8 February 2018
Tax provisions — Harmonisation of laws — Excise duties — Directive 2008/118 — Chargeability of excise duty — Time and place where the chargeability occurred — Supplies of petroleum products — National legislation authorising the sale of tax-exempted petroleum products by filling stations at the border of the Member State in question with third countries — Not permissible — Failure to fulfil obligations
(Council Directive 2008/118, Art. 7(1))
A Member State which adopts and retains in force legislation allowing the sale of tax-exempted petroleum products by filling stations at border posts situated in regions bordering third countries fails to fulfil its obligations under Article 7(1) of Council Directive 2008/118 concerning the general arrangements for excise duty.
Indeed, those petroleum products are excise goods. Their departure from the duty suspension arrangement at the time vehicles are re-fuelled on the territory of the Hellenic Republic results in their release for consumption. Since, in accordance with Article 7 (1) of Directive 2008/118, excise duty becomes chargeable at that precise time, the national legislation allowing the supply of those products without levying excise duty is contrary to that provision.
The placing of excise goods, after their departure from a duty suspension arrangement, under a customs export arrangement, does not alter that finding. First, since the re-fuelling of vehicles must be characterised as a ‘departure’ and, consequently, as a ‘release for consumption’ within the meaning of Article 7 of Directive 2008/118, the fact that the fuels are subsequently or even concurrently placed under a ‘customs export procedure’ has no bearing on the chargeability of the excise duty. Second, the national rules at issue relating to the implementation of the sale of the petroleum products do not fulfil the requirements of Directive 2008/118, pursuant to which either the sale of excise goods may be exempted from excise duty or such products may be exported under a duty suspension arrangement.
(see paras 46, 47, 49, 51, 58, operative part)