"Procedural clarifications in criminal customs law: open hearings, simple hearings, garlic tariff quotas.

"Procedural clarifications in criminal customs law": free hearings, simple hearings, tariff quotas on garlic. Gaspard de Bellescize comments on a November 9, 2022 ruling by the Chambre Criminelle published in the Revue des Sociétés Editions Dalloz | Lefebvre Dalloz of March 2023.

A critical opinion on the practice of "simple hearings" in customs matters, whereas neither article 65 of the Customs Code nor - and this is new - article 334 of the same code give customs officers a "general power of hearing".

We also refer to the "right to be heard" procedure, instituted for the benefit of taxpayers, which in our view has been impoverished by this ruling, since Customs could simply provide a list of the information and documents on which its proposed reassessment is based, rather than forwarding them spontaneously. At the very least, it must provide this list... The Criminal Division also affirms the absence of res judicata authority in criminal matters for a decision by a civil judge finding an irregularity in the customs procedure, and applies the notion of abuse of rights in criminal customs law. In our view, this is a first in the customs field, and we shall be closely monitoring future developments, given the uncertainty surrounding this concept for practitioners.