Court of Justice finds that use of goods under the UCC’s inward processing procedure refers only to the operations not authorised by customs authorities within that procedure

The Court of Justice has delivered its judgment in Combinova (C-476/19), a case concerning the interpretation of the term ‘use of goods’ in the inward processing procedure of the Union Customs Code (UCC), which allows for the processing of goods imported from outside the customs territory of the EU before a final decision is made on whether the finished products will be sold within the EU or re exported without incurring in a customs debt.

In the case at issue, Combinova AB imported goods under said procedure and re-exported them shortly after, but without any bill of discharge being submitted to the customs authority. A customs debt was incurred under Article 79 UCC (non-compliance), which was unsuccessfully appealed by Combinova