ECJ Customs C-307/23 (G GmbH) – AG Opinion – EU-Designed Label Templates Must Be Included in Customs Value as Container Costs

On October 16, 2025, the ECJ issued the AG Opinion in the case C-307/23 (G GmbH).

Context: Reference for a preliminary ruling – Customs union – Import and export procedures – Regulation (EEC) No 2913/92 – Determination of customs value – Costs associated with the templates of labels for tinned food

Summary

The case concerns whether the costs of label printing templates, designed in the EU by a buyer and provided free to non-EU suppliers for imported tinned food, should be included in the customs value under Article 32(1)(a)(ii) (cost of containers) or Article 32(1)(b)(iv) (design work for goods undertaken elsewhere than in the Community) of the Community Customs Code.
The Advocate General (AG) proposes that these costs must be added to the transaction value under Article 32(1)(a)(ii), arguing that labels are an essential and integral part of the ‘containers’ (the tins) because they enable their economic purpose (information, marketing).
The AG dismisses the applicability of Article 32(1)(b)(iv) because it applies to engineering and design work necessary for the imported goods themselves, not their containers, and explicitly requires such work to be undertaken outside the European Union, which was not the case here.

AG Opinion

Article 32(1)(a)(ii) and Article 32(1)(b)(iv) of Council Regulation (EEC) No 2913/92 of 12 October 1992 establishing the Community Customs Code

must be interpreted as meaning that the costs associated with the production, in the customs territory of the European Union, of printing templates for labels affixed to tins containing foodstuffs imported into the European Union must be added to the relevant transaction value, where the buyer established in the customs territory of the European Union makes the printing templates available free of charge in electronic form to suppliers in a third country.

Source Curia