CJEU: when can the cost of EU-based design work be included in customs value?

The Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) recently ruled on a matter with significant implications for companies importing packaged goods into the EU. When an EU-based buyer pays for label printing templates produced in the EU and provides them to an overseas supplier free of charge for printing and affixing to packages of imported goods, must the cost of the templates be included in the customs value? This case raised a specific valuation issue because, although the templates constituted design work supplied by the buyer free of charge, they were produced within the EU. This would usually exclude such design work costs from the customs value. The CJEU therefore had to determine whether these costs should instead be treated as relating to the containers of the imported goods.