Treasury written statement – made at on 23 November 2006.
John Healey
The Financial Secretary to the Treasury
The European Court of Justice (ECJ) has today ruled on a Dutch case known as Joustra, which concerns the rules on cross-border purchasing of excise products. The ECJ ruled that only products acquired and transported personally by private individuals are exempt from excise duty in the member state of importation.
This is the right and common-sense decision that upholds the existing Laws on cross-border shopping and national rates of taxation. The UK's rules on cross-border shopping will remain unchanged as a result of this judgment.
Consumers will still be able to travel to the EU and purchase goods for private consumption without paying UK duty. The UK continues to have the highest indicative levels for determining own use in the EU set at: 3,200 for cigarettes; 3 kg for hand-rolling tobacco; 110 litres for beer; 90 litres for wine and 10 litres for spirits.
The Government continue to support strongly the right of individuals to benefit from the freedoms of the EU single market when purchases are brought back for own use, with the individual present, and that are within the law.
Laws are the rules by which a country is governed. Britain has a long history of law making and the laws of this country can be divided into three types:- 1) Statute Laws are the laws that have been made by Parliament. 2) Case Law is law that has been established from cases tried in the courts - the laws arise from test cases. The result of the test case creates a precedent on which future cases are judged. 3) Common Law is a part of English Law, which has not come from Parliament. It consists of rules of law which have developed from customs or judgements made in courts over hundreds of years. For example until 1861 Parliament had never passed a law saying that murder was an offence. From the earliest times courts had judged that murder was a crime so there was no need to make a law.
