"Today we have saved over CZK 60 million. The General Court of the Court of Justice of the EU has ordered the European Commission to reimburse Czechia for this money - because it confirmed that our customs officials acted correctly when importing textiles and footwear from Asia. This is a significant success for the customs administration and the legal team of the Czech diplomacy," said Minister Lipavský. 

The dispute relates to imports of selected goods into Czechia in November and December 2011, when a coordinated EU inspection operation targeting undervalued imports from Asia was underway. In accordance with Commission guidelines, Czech customs authorities identified imports below the Commission's threshold value and carried out detailed checks on these imports before they were cleared. On the basis of these checks, they concluded that in all cases the declared value of the goods by the importer was in line with their quality and therefore found no grounds to question this declared value and to levy a higher duty. However, the Commission was convinced that the Czech authorities should not have accepted such a value even after the checks and should have determined the duty according to the higher values calculated by the Commission. 

The Commission therefore demanded that the Czech Republic pay the additional duty. The Czech authorities negotiated with the Commission for many years and submitted the necessary documents and evidence. In view of the unsatisfactory progress, the Czech Republic eventually paid the amounts of duty requested by the Commission, albeit with a reservation of disagreement, and subsequently brought an action before the General Court for unjust enrichment in an amount corresponding to the difference between the duty actually collected and the duty which the Commission considered should have been collected, less 25 % of the collection costs. 

In its judgment, the General Court accepted Czechia´s claim in full and ruled that the Commission must reimburse the entire amount claimed, i.e. CZK 60 435 306,39. The General Court fully agreed with the Czech argumentation and found no deficiencies in the procedure followed by the Czech customs authorities in the given situation.  

The Czech Republic was represented in the dispute by civil servants from the Office of the Government Commissioner for Representation of the Czech Republic before the Court of Justice of the EU, which is part of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.