Judgment of the Court of First Instance (Second Chamber) of 3 October 2006 – Hewlett-Packard v Commission

(Case T-313/04)

Refusal of repayment of import duties – Action for annulment – Importation of printers and printer cartridges from Singapore – Particular circumstances – Equity clause – Article 239 of Regulation (EC) No 2913/92

1.                     Acts of the institutions – Temporal application – Immediate application of a new procedural rule – Retrospective effect of a substantive rule – Conditions (Council Regulation No 3093/95; Commission Regulation No 3009/95) (see para. 53)

2.                     Own resources of the European Communities – Repayment or remission of import or export duties (Council Regulation No 2913/92, Art. 239; Commission Regulation No 2454/93, Art. 905) (see paras 55-61)

3.                     Community law – Principles – Legal certainty – Community legislation (see para. 66)

4.                     Community law – Principles – Protection of legitimate expectations – Conditions (see paras 72-73)

Re:

ACTION for annulment of Commission Decision REM 06/02 of 7 April 2004 advising the German authorities that the applicant should not receive repayment of import duties on printers and printer cartridges from Singapore.

Operative part

The Court:

1. Dismisses the action;

2. Orders the applicant to bear its own costs and pay those of the Commission.