Mapping customs penalties accross EU

Customs penalties are not harmonised across the EU: this conference presentation by Antonio Castagnini (Greif) maps how the 27 member states differ in treating customs violations as administrative or criminal matters, drawing on a 2023 EU study — essential context for trade compliance professionals assessing where their operations carry the greatest legal risk.

Topics covered:

• Why customs duty/procedure law is EU-exclusive, but enforcement (administrative vs criminal sanctions) is a national competence
• Findings of a 2023 EU study comparing sanction regimes across the 27 member states, including countries relying mainly on administrative sanctions, mainly criminal sanctions, or a mixed system
• How this fragmentation creates legal uncertainty and can distort competitiveness within the internal market
• Union Customs Code provisions linked to criminal risk: providing false information to customs authorities, document retention periods, and record-keeping/document production during clearance
• Criminal treatment of failing to provide proof of preferential origin
• The surprising divergence in how member states sanction non-payment of import duties
• Practical use of the study to map compliance risk across countries of operation

For a broader overview of the topic, please watch the full recording. The slides are available in the Resources section.

Please note that this summary was generated using AI, based on the recording and available slides.