Court of Appeal asks European Court of Justice to rule on lawfulness on seizing counterfeit goods coming through EU in transit only – Nokia v HMRC, Court of Appeal

Nokia has persuaded the Court of Appeal to ask the European Court of Justice to answer questions surrounding the seizure of counterfeit goods which are passing through the EU in transit only. Under EU law, goods could be impounded if there is a genuine risk that they would end up in the open market in the EU. In this particular case, HMRC seized about 400 counterfeit Nokia goods at Heathrow Airport, but those phones were clearly en route from Hong Kong to Colombia. Therefore, under the relevant Regulations, the High Court could not agree to Nokia’s request for HMRC to impound the phones. On appeal, the Court of Appeal has now said that the ECJ has to rule on whether fake goods purely in transit in the EU from one non-EU country to another non-EU country could be seized by customs. Watch this space for more…