Court of Justice (Ninth Chamber) 21 September 2023, C-210/22 (Stappert Deutschland GmbH v Hauptzollamt Hannover.)

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In a preliminary ruling concerning the determination of non-preferential origin of steel pipes under Article 60(2) of Regulation (EU) No 952/2013 (Union Customs Code), the Court of Justice held that the concept of 'hollow profile' under the primary rule in Annex 22-01 to Delegated Regulation (EU) 2015/2446 does not cover hot-formed tube blanks that are straight and of uniform wall thickness under HS subheading 730449. The Court further ruled that the primary rule for goods under HS subheading 730441 is invalid in so far as it excludes the transformation of tubes and pipes under HS subheading 730449 into cold-drawn or cold-rolled seamless products under HS subheading 730441 from conferring origin in the country where that processing occurred. Consequently, the European Commission committed a manifest error of assessment by establishing unjustified discriminatory origin criteria between hollow profiles and pipes or tubes subjected to analogous cold-forming operations.AI