Alcohol turned into water in a customs warehouse: who pays the customs bill?
Jurgita Bartninkienė
Head of Customs Brokerage and Customer Service, First Logistics UAB, Lithuania
Published 23 Aug 2022
Photo by Charles "Duck" Unitas on Unsplash
A customs warehouse stored bottled alcohol (vodka). Customs audited the warehouse, took a sample, and found that there was water instead of vodka in the bottles! Customs ordered the warehouse to pay €308,455 customs debt (import duties and taxes, fines and interest). A dispute arose regarding who must pay the customs debt, as the customs warehouse is not obliged to take samples of the goods. Let's look at the clarification of the Supreme Administrative Court of Lithuania (SACL) in this case.