Binding Tariff Information: for one or for all?

Can companies rely on Binding Tariff Information (BTI) issued for their competitors’ goods for the classification of their own products? This question was examined in the European Court of Justice (ECJ) in its ruling, which raised the issue of the classification of optical fibre cables under Combined Nomenclature (CN) subheadings 8544 70 00 and 9001 10 90. The case also considered the principles of legal certainty and legitimate expectations that businesses increasingly need to rely upon to justify various decisions.