Judgment of 17 May 2018 in Case C‑30/17 (Piwowarska)
Kompania Piwowarska is a Polish brewer, which produces beer, including flavoured beer. The latter is produced from traditional beer, to which sugar syrup, aromatic substances and water are added after the alcoholic fermentation process has been completed.
[Red. For a full understanding of how the excise duties on beer is calculated, you may want to read the conclusion for this case (see here). In short: excise duties can be based on the alcohol percentage, or on the basis of the degrees plato. The latter is a specific calculation that is based on the ‘sugar content’ prior to the fermentation. The question is this case is if for the calculation of excise duties, the added sugars must be taken into account or not.]
Kompania Piwowarska argued that for the calculation of the excise duties, the added sugar content of the finished product must be disregarded, as excise duties are only payable on the beer which does not contain additives.
The Polish customs authorities did not agree, and argued that the degrees plato must be calculated on the basis of the finished product, thus including the added sugars.
The European Court of Justice rules that in order to determine the basis of assessment for flavoured beers according to the Plato scale, the dry extract of the original wort must be taken into consideration but not the aromatic substances or sugar syrup added after the completion of fermentation.
In other words: excise duties are not to be calculated on the added sugars.
Source: Curia
