29.1.2011
EN
Official Journal of the European Union
C 30/23
Reference for a preliminary ruling from the Tribunal d'instance de Roubaix (France) lodged on 17 November 2010 — CIVAD SA v Receveur des douanes de Roubaix, Directeur régional des douanes et droits indirects de Lille, Administration des douanes
(Case C-533/10)
2011/C 30/38
Language of the case: French
Referring court
Tribunal d'instance de Roubaix
Parties to the main proceedings
Applicant: CIVAD SA
Defendants: Receveur des douanes de Roubaix, Directeur régional des douanes et droits indirects de Lille, Administration des douanes
Questions referred
1.
Does the unlawfulness of a Community regulation, which cannot in fact or in law be challenged by a trader by means of an individual action to have it annulled, amount for that trader to a case of force majeure which permits the time-limit provided for in the second sub-paragraph of Article 236(2) of the Community Customs Code to be exceeded (1)?
2.
If the first question is answered in the negative, do the provisions of the third sub-paragraph of Article 236(2) of the Community Customs Code require the customs authorities to repay anti-dumping duties of their own initiative when the unlawfulness of those duties has been found following a challenge to their lawfulness by a Member State of the World Trade Organisation (‘the W.T.O.’):
1.
from the time of the first communication of the country concerned contesting the lawfulness of the anti-dumping regulation;
2.
from the time of the panel report finding the unlawfulness of the anti-dumping regulation;
3.
from the time of the report of the Appellate Body of the W.T.O. which led the European Community to recognise the unlawfulness of the anti-dumping regulation?
(1) Council Regulation (EEC) No 2913/92 of 12 October 1992 establishing the Community Customs Code (OJ 1992 L 302, p. 1).
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