Judgment_paragraph 7 · Commission of the European Communities v Italian Republic (C-209/89)

7In order to establish whether the action brought by the Commission is well founded, it should be emphasized, first of all, that, as the Court has frequently held (see, for example, the judgment in Case C-137/89 Commissions Italy [1990] ECR I-847), the justification for the prohibition of charges having equivalent effect to customs duties lies in the fact that pecuniary charges, however small, applied by reason of the crossing of a frontier, constitute an obstacle to the movement of goods, in that they artificially increase the price of imported or exported goods in relation to domestic products. Accordingly, any pecuniary charge, whatever its designation and mode of application, which is imposed unilaterally on goods by reason of the fact that they cross a frontier, constitutes a charge having equivalent effect to a customs duty within the meaning of Articles 9, 12, 13 and 16 of the Treaty.