Key Benefits:
The public concerned: Customs officials and persons who may benefit from the graceful disposal of confiscated or abandoned goods by transaction.
Subject: modification of the terms and conditions of disposal graced by the Customs Department of confiscated or abandoned objects by transaction.
Entry into force: the text comes into force on the day after its publication.
Notice: the Customs Code provides for the confiscation of objects according to its special rules. As part of the transactional regulation of offences, goods subject to confiscation may be abandoned for the benefit of the administration of customs and indirect duties.
TheArticle 390 of the Customs Code allows the administration of customs and indirect rights to alienate and dispose of these objects. The order of September 26, 1949, which organizes this alienation and sale, provides for the auction and, by exception, the graceful disposal and destruction of objects.
This Order amends the categories of objects graciously disposed of by the administration of customs and indirect rights and the conditions of such assignments. It also changes the categories of objects that can be destroyed.
References: this order is taken in application of theArticle 390 of the Customs Code. The text can be found on the website Légifrance (http://www.legifrance.gouv.fr).
Minister Delegate to the Minister of Economy and Finance, Budget Officer,
Having regard to Council Regulation (EEC) No. 3626/82 of 3 December 1982 relating to the application in the Community of the Convention on the International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora;
Having regard to Council Regulation (EC) No. 338/97 of 9 December 1996 on the protection of wildlife species through the control of their trade, including article 16;
Vu le Customs Codeincluding article 390;
Vu le Heritage Codearticles L. 441-1 et seq.;
In view of the rural and maritime fishing code, including articles L. 230-6 and R. 230-9 to R. 230-24;
Vu le Decree No. 97-435 of 25 April 1997 publishing the Convention concerning measures to be taken to prohibit and prevent the illicit importation, export and transfer of property of cultural property, made in Paris on 14 November 1970;
Having regard to the amended decision of 26 September 1949 relating to the alienation by the customs service of objects confiscated or abandoned by transaction;
Having regard to the decision of 30 June 1998 establishing the terms and conditions for the application of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora and Regulations (EC) No. 338/97 of the European Council and (EC) No. 939/97 of the European Commission;
In view of the decision of 31 July 2001 concerning the destination of war materials, weapons, weapons, ammunition, ammunition and other State-owned explosives,
Stop it!
Section 6 of the above-mentioned Order of September 26, 1949 is repealed and the following substituted:
"Art. 6.-1. The Customs administration is empowered to provide, for general interest considerations, amicable transfers to both natural persons and legal persons carrying out a public service mission.
2. By derogation from 1 above, the customs administration may preempt transportation or goods abandoned by transaction or that have been the subject of a final forfeiture for violation of the laws and regulations it enforces.
3. Amicable transfers may not be made free of charge or at a price significantly less than the value of objects.
4. However, by derogation from the 3 above, the customs administration is authorized:
(a) Done to:
hospitals, public hospices or other care institutions that benefit from the assistance of the State or territorial authorities;
– recognized associations and foundations of public utility;
- other associations and groups authorized under Article L. 230-6 of the Rural and Maritime Fisheries Code and the texts taken for its application,
goods for which the service has not collected any offer of purchase or food.
In the event that these people are not interested, foodstuffs may be disposed of, regardless of their value, to international organizations as well as non-profit associations and groups for humanitarian assistance abroad.
Such organizations shall not be able to retrocession, in an expensive manner, of the objects and commodities so allocated only to be excluded from the benefit of these measures.
(b) To give gifts to national museums, the National Library, France or to national archives, free of charge or at a price less than their venal value, objects of artistic or documentary historical character.
In the event that these establishments are not interested, the Customs Administration is authorized to surrender under the same conditions:
― to museums and institutions having the name of "museum of France", in application of theArticle L. 441-1 of the Heritage Code ;
– to public academic and scientific institutions under the supervision of the State or a territorial community,
objects of historical, artistic or documentary character whose conservation is related to their vocation.
Disposal to private persons pursuant to this item shall be effected, provided that the recipient agrees to an undertaking prohibiting the resale or assignment of the objects entrusted to them in an expensive manner.
(c) To yield, under the terms of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora, Regulation (EC) No. 338/97 and the aforementioned Order of 30 June 1998:
- museums and zoological parks managed by the State, a territorial community or a public institution under their control;
- museums and zoological parks managed by a non-profit association or organization receiving public funding;
- to public academic and scientific institutions under the supervision of the State or a territorial community;
- to establishments accredited to receive live specimens protected by the provisions of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora, Regulation (EC) No 338/97, located in the territory of another Member State of the European Union; free of charge or at a price less than their venal value the specimens of fauna and flora whose conservation is related to their vocation.
In the event that these establishments are not interested, the customs administration is authorized to assign under the same conditions and for the same purposes to other zoological parks, specimens of fauna and flora or, in the absence of any other possibility, to an individual with recognized competence, reputation and probity.
The assignment referred to in the preceding paragraph shall be effected, provided that the beneficiary person enters into an undertaking prohibiting the resale or assignment in an expensive capacity of the specimen(s) entrusted to him.
Any assignment made in accordance with point c is carried out after information from the Ministry of Ecology.
(d) To transfer to police or gendarmerie services free of charge means of transport that have been abandoned by transaction or forfeiture for violation of the laws and regulations it provides for the application. This assignment is subject to reimbursement of costs incurred for the rehabilitation of vehicles.
(e) To assign to a foreign State, under the ii of Article 7 and the b of Article 13 of the Convention concerning the measures to be taken to prohibit and prevent the import, export and transfer of illicit property of cultural property, signed in Paris on 14 November 1970, free of charge or at a price less than their venal value, the goods referred to in Article 1 of this Convention. This assignment is made after notice from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
5. Amicable assignments are recorded by means of bids or minutes approved by the Regional Customs Director if the price does not exceed €10,000 and by the Minister for Customs if the price is greater than €10,000.
However, the amicable assignments referred to in paragraph 3 e above fall within the purview of the Minister of Customs. »
Section 8 of the above-mentioned Order of September 26, 1949 is repealed and the following substituted:
Art. 8. ― 1. The customs administration may cause destruction:
(a) Falsified or unfit for consumption;
(b) Counterfeit goods;
(c) Goods prohibited under the international commitments of France;
(d) Goods subject to international fraud and a clandestine market prejudicing the legitimate interests of regular trade and those of the Treasury;
(e) Products and objects that may affect public health, public morals and public safety.
2. Destruction must be recorded by minutes. »
The Director General of Customs and Indirect Rights is responsible for the execution of this Order, which will be published in the Official Journal of the French Republic.
Done on 4 March 2013.
Jérôme Cahuzac
