Affaire C‑139/14
Mineralquelle Zurzach AG
v
Hauptzollamt Singen
(Request for a preliminary ruling from
the Finanzgericht Baden-Württemberg)
(Reference for a preliminary ruling— Common Customs Tariff— Tariff classification— Combined Nomenclature— Classification of goods— Tariff heading 22021000 — Waters, including mineral waters and aerated waters, containing added sugar or other sweetening matter or flavoured— Tariff heading 22029010 11— Fruit or vegetable juice diluted with water or aerated water)
Summary— Order of the Court (Sixth Chamber) of 22 October 2014
1.Questions referred for a preliminary ruling— Answer admitting of no reasonable doubt— Application of Article99 of the Rules of Procedure
(Rules of Procedure of the Court of Justice, Art. 99)
2.Questions referred for a preliminary ruling— Jurisdiction of the Court— Limits— Classification of goods under the tariff headings of the Common Customs Tariff
(Art. 267 TFEU)
3.Customs union— Common Customs Tariff— Tariff headings— Drink made up, inter alia, of water, sugar, concentrated orange, lemon, grape, pineapple, mandarin, nectarine and passion fruit juice, apricot and guava pulp, acidification agent, vitamin mixture, natural and artificial flavouring agents and with a total fruit content of 12% — Classification under heading 22021000 of the Combined Nomenclature
(Council Regulation No2658/87, Annex I, position 22021000)
1.See the text of the decision.
(see para. 25)
2.Where the Court has before it a request for a preliminary ruling on a matter of tariff classification, its task is to provide the national court with guidance on the criteria which will enable the latter to classify the products at issue correctly in the Combined Nomenclature, rather than to effect that classification itself, a fortiori since the Court does not necessarily have available to it all the information which is essential in that regard. In any event, the national court is in a better position to do so. However, in order to give the national court a useful answer which will enable it to effect the tariff classification on which it is asked to adjudicate, the Court may, in a spirit of cooperation with national courts, provide it with all the guidance that it deems necessary.
(see paras 28, 29)
3.The Combined Nomenclature contained in Annex 1 to Regulation No2658/87 on the tariff and statistical nomenclature and on the Common Customs Tariff, as amended by Regulation No1719/2005, must be interpreted as meaning that a beverage made up, inter alia, of water, sugar, concentrated orange, lemon, grape, pineapple, mandarin, nectarine and passion fruit juice, apricot and guava pulp, acidification agent, vitamin mixture, natural and artificial flavouring agents and with a total fruit content of 12%, comes under subheading 22021000 of that nomenclature.
(see para. 38, operative part)