Charlton House approached a major UK camera distributor in 2006 with a view to conducting a customs duty review.
The importer distributed vehicle reversing aid products which consisted of a series of cameras feeding into a monitor on the vehicle’s dashboard. The importer had classified the entire supply to the camera heading attracting relatively high rates of duty.
We believed that the supply consisted of two products (cameras and a single monitor) having equally specific classifications. In our opinion however, it was the monitor that gave the goods their ‘essential character’ and on this basis, we reclassified the entire supply to the corresponding duty free heading. The importer now uses a duty free heading to import these parts and has successfully reclaimed the duty overpaid in the past. |