Facts
On 16 May 1960, Gehrig, employed as a customs declarant for the company Air Transport Service AG, declared to the customs office at Zurich Airport a bale of 73.5 kg of woollen fabric of English origin addressed to the company Gebr. Dierauer. His declaration stated "woollen fabric by the metre, woven in colours, weighing less than 300 g per m2, with a maximum of 20 threads per 5 mm2". According to this customs tariff, the goods should have been taxed at 350 francs per 100 kg. However, during the customs inspection, it was found that the woollen fabric had 42 threads per 5 mm2 and should therefore have been taxed at 550 francs per 100 kg under a different tariff number. This false declaration resulted in a customs duty of 155 francs being at risk.
The Federal Customs Directorate imposed a fine of 116.25 francs on Gehrig for an infringement of Art. 74 No. 6 of the Customs Act (CustA). Gehrig requested a judicial ruling.
The District Court of Bülach acquitted him on the grounds that he had not negligently endangered the customs duty, as for operational reasons it was not possible for a customs declarant at Kloten Airport to examine the goods, even by sampling, in all cases.
Considerations
According to case law, the customs declarant has the obligation to take all necessary measures provided for by law and regulations to carry out the customs inspection and determine the customs duty obligation. In particular, he must submit a customs declaration (Art. 31 CustA) for which he is responsible for the accuracy (Art. 35 para. 3 CustA, Art. 47 para. 2 of the Ordinance on the Implementation of the CustA).
To fulfil this obligation, the customs declarant must ensure the contents of the consignments, even if the sender and the recipient have provided consistent information. For this purpose, Art. 32 CustA grants him the right to examine the goods subject to customs control before clearance. If he does not do so and relies solely on the information provided by third parties,…