Customs fraud means the evasion of import duties payable on goods entering the EU. It is financially damaging – for legitimate business and for the EU budget. Often, when import duties are evaded, so is the VAT payable on the imported goods.
OLAF deals with this issue through:
- mutual administrative assistance with customs authorities in EU countries
- customs administrative-assistance agreements with non-EU countries and
- strong cooperation with European business.
What's at stake?
Over €1 billion in potentially evaded import duties for 2022-2024. That is the amount OLAF thinks the EU could recover, based on its investigations.
The amount at stake has risen significantly with the spread of online trading.
In its investigations, OLAF’s priority is to stop fraud at an early stage. A preventive, targeted and data-driven approach is crucial.
OLAF's role
- Administrative investigations into evasion of import duties (including conventional, anti-dumping and countervailing duties) and VAT at import on all types of commodities and goods – especially involving:
- false declarations of origin (in both preferential and non-preferential regimes)
- undervaluation
- misclassification
- irregular introduction of goods into the EU
- Detecting, preventing & investigating customs fraud that impacts the EU budget, in cooperation with national customs services and other partners both inside and outside the EU.
- Coordinating administrative investigations by national customs services in EU countries.
- Defending the results of these investigations in administrative & judicial appeal proceedings within the Commission, before national courts and the European Court of Justice.
- Cooperating with the European Prosecutor’s Office in criminal cases, and ensuring that action is taken to protect the EU budget.