CJEU: placed at the wrong office, relief lost

Outward processing is a procedure many practitioners treat as routine: Union goods leave the EU temporarily, are worked on abroad, and return with import duty charged on only part of their value. The relief is valuable - but it is conditional. Does it really matter which customs office the goods are placed under, or whether the right procedure code is used? A recent General Court ruling says it matters a great deal: a special procedure's conditions are not box‑ticking formalities, and getting the mechanics wrong can forfeit the entire benefit, even where the trader acted in good faith and the goods were genuinely processed abroad. This article explains what went wrong, how the Court reasoned across the old Community Customs Code and the current Union Customs Code, and - above all - the practical steps traders should take to protect relief under outward processing and other special procedures.