Web-Companion Essential EU Law in Text: Suggested solutions to the exercises
Please find hereinafter the suggested solutions to the 64 exercises contained in the book "Tobler/Beglinger, Essential EU Law in Text, 5th edition, HVG-ORAC 2020, ISBN 978-963-258-490-4". To give you an idea how the exercises in the book are phrased, they have been added for the first three instances. Any comments or feedback are welcome.Free movement of goods – Exercise 3
Suggested solution:
The exercise raises the question of whether beer, wine, whisky and the other spirits that are taxed more highly than raki, on the one hand, and whether beer, wine, whisky, the other spirits or any of them and raki, on the other hand, are similar products within the meaning of Art. 110(1) TFEU and, further, whether (some of) the products that are taxed higher have been imported. The concept of similarity has been defined by the Court in the so-called Beer and Wine cases, among them John Walker. If the products are comparable, it is prohibited to tax the imported product higher than the domestic product. If they are not similar but still in competition, the taxation of the foreign product must not be protective.
[Relevant Charts: Chapter 8, in particular Charts 8/11-8/13]
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