Case C‑185/17
Mitnitsa Varna
v
SAKSA ООD
(Request for a preliminary ruling from the Administrativen sad — Varna)
(Reference for a preliminary ruling — Common Customs Tariff — Classification of goods — Harmonised European standard EN 590:2013 — Subheading 27101943 of the Combined Nomenclature — Relevant criteria for the classification of goods as gas oil)
Summary — Judgment of the Court (Tenth Chamber), 22 February 2018
Customs union — Common Customs Tariff — Tariff headings — Mineral oil of which more than 65% distils, by the ISO 3405 method, at 250o Celsius — Classification under subheading 27101943 of the Combined Nomenclature — Not included — Oil meeting the requirements referred to in harmonised European standard EN 590:2013 — Irrelevant
(Commission Regulation No 2658/87, Annex I, subheading 27101943)
The Combined Nomenclature contained 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) No 1101/2014 of 16 October 2014 must be interpreted as meaning that a mineral oil, such as that at issue in the main proceedings, may not, on account of its distillation characteristics, be classified as gas oil under subheading 27101943 of that nomenclature, even when that oil meets the requirements referred to in harmonised standard EN 590:2013, in the version of the month of September 2013, relating to gas oil for arctic or severe winter climates.
In the present case, it should be noted that CN subheading 27101943, the wording of which refers to gas oils with a sulphur content not exceeding 0.001% by weight comes under CN heading 2710, which concerns petroleum oils and oils obtained from bituminous minerals, other than crude. For the purposes of that heading, additional note 2 to chapter 27 of the CN defines the concept of ‘gas oils’ in point (e) thereof.
In that regard, it follows from the wording of point (e), read in combination with point (d) of that additional note, that, inter alia, oils and preparations of which less than 65% by volume (including losses) distils at 250 °C and 85% or more at 350 °C, by the ISO 3405 method, are considered to be ‘gas oils’.
Accordingly, it is clear from the wording of those points that, for the purpose of the tariff classification of a product as gas oil, the only determining factor in the context of CN heading 2710 is the distillation rate at the temperatures indicated, by the ISO 3405 method.
Consequently, since, in the present case, the parties to the main proceedings do not dispute that more than 65% of the mineral oil in question distils, by the ISO 3405 method, at 250 °Celsius, it does not fall within the definition of ‘gas oils’ in accordance with additional note 2(e) to Chapter 27 of the CN and cannot be classified under the subheadings relating to products which fall within the scope of that definition.
(see paras 32-35, 43, operative part)