Binding Tariff Information (BTI): the ruling that binds customs to your code

A Binding Tariff Information (BTI) decision is a written ruling from a national customs authority that fixes the classification code for a specific product. You describe the goods, the authority determines the code, and the decision is issued to you. Unlike an informal opinion, a BTI is legally binding - and it binds both sides.

What a BTI does for you

A BTI is binding on all EU customs authorities, not just the one that issued it, and it is binding on the holder too. That is the point: once you hold a BTI, customs across the EU must apply the code it states to your goods, and you must declare them under that code. It gives legal certainty on the classification - and therefore on the duty rate, and on whether the goods face prohibitions and restrictions or need a licence.

A few practical features:

• It is valid for three years from the date it takes effect.
• It is free to apply for, through the EU customs trader portal.
• It covers the specific goods described and the holder named - it is not a general classification for a whole product category.

When a BTI stops being valid

A BTI is durable, but not permanent. It can cease to be valid before its three years are up - for example when the classification rules change through an amendment to the Harmonized System or the Combined Nomenclature, a Commission Classification Regulation, a ruling of the Court of Justice, or a change to the Explanatory Notes. Customs can also revoke or annul a BTI in defined circumstances (Article 34 UCC). So a BTI is something to keep under review, not to file away and forget - the code it confirms today can be overtaken by a change tomorrow.

Research before you apply

Before applying for your own BTI, it is worth seeing how identical or similar goods have already been classified. BTIs issued across the EU are published in anonymised form in the EBTI database, and existing Classification Regulations and Court rulings often cover the same ground. Where many rulings converge on one code, that is a strong signal - and a solid basis for your own application.

Use case

Take a general-purpose electric mobility scooter for elderly users. There is real money in the answer: classified as a vehicle for the transport of persons (8703 10 18) it attracts 10% duty; classified as a carriage for disabled persons (8713) it is duty-free. The temptation to claim the duty-free heading is obvious - and wrong.

Ask Classify AI and it shows why. Across the evidence, everything converges on 8703 10 18: two binding EU Classification Regulations (718/2009 for a three-wheeled scooter, 2021/1367 for a four-wheeled one), the Court of Justice in Case C-12/10, and 16 EBTI rulings from Denmark, Spain, Romania, Lithuania, Sweden and others. The closest rival, heading 8713, is set aside: it covers vehicles specially designed for disabled persons, and - as the Court confirmed in the SELVO 4800 case - a scooter built for elderly people with minor mobility limitations is not one specially designed for the disabled. Elderly is not the same as disabled, so the duty-free heading does not apply.

That is what a BTI does in advance: it turns this weight of converging rulings into a decision that binds customs to the code before your goods reach the border. 

We used Classify AI's Quick mode here. It does not make the classification decision - it analyses the relevant BTIs, classification regulations and court rulings, and gives you a reasoned answer to build on. Try Classify AI.