Introduction

The traditional heart within common markets is the free movement of goods. And in order to create a European “common market” in goods, the Union legal order has established a constitutional regime in which illegal barriers to intra-Union trade must be removed. This constitutional regime is however split over two sites within Part III of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union. It finds its principal place in Title II governing the free movement of goods. But the latter is complemented by a chapter on “Tax Provisions” within Title VII.

This Chapter analyses the free movement of goods provisions in four steps. Section 1 examines the prohibition on customs duties. These are fiscal duties charged when goods cross (national) borders. Section 2 moves to the second type of fiscal charge: discriminatory taxes imposed on foreign goods. Section 3 then investigates the legality of regulatory restrictions to the free movement of goods. Regulatory restrictions are not, unlike fiscal duties, pecuniary charges. They simply “regulate” access to the national market by – for example – establishing product or labelling requirements. Finally, Section 4 will look at possible justifications for regulatory restrictions to trade in goods.