Customs authorities adjusted customs value of goods imported into the territory of Russia by AGP’s client, the biggest official importer of automobile spare parts of a famous European brand.
The Customs considered the value of the imported goods understated on the ground that identical goods had been purchased by other Russian importers from Asian resellers by way of so-called “parallel importing” at a considerably higher price.
As a result of this the Customs adjusted the value of the goods based on the “parallel importing” prices and assessed additional customs duties for the AGP’s client.
AGP attorneys-at-law appealed from the Customs’ decision through arbitrazh (commercial) court on the ground that the customs audit relied on the pricing information derived from a deal that was incomparable with that of the AGP’s client who purchases the goods directly from the manufacturer in great volumes and on regular basis.
The deal used by the customs for comparison was non recurring had been made within the secondary market and for a relatively small parcel of goods, however the Customs did not apply any adjustments that would allow for factoring those circumstances in. Thus, information on pricing used by the Customs authorities was irrelevant to the client’s deal.
The Court agreed with AGP’s reasoning and held the Customs’ act invalid.
The client was represented by attorneys-at-law Valentin Moiseev and Dmitry Yakushev.
