Section 7

The customs authorities may carry out all the customs controls they deem necessary. Customs controls may in particular consist of examining goods, taking samples, verifying declaration data and the existence and authenticity of documents, examining the accounts of economic operators and other records, inspecting means of transport, inspecting luggage and other goods carried by or on persons and carrying out official enquiries and other similar acts. Customs controls, other than random checks, shall primarily be based on risk analysis using electronic data-processing techniques, with the purpose of identifying and evaluating the risks and developing the necessary counter-measures, on the basis of criteria developed at national, Community and, where available, international level. Member States, in cooperation with the Commission, shall develop, maintain and employ a common risk management framework, based upon the exchange of risk information and analysis between customs administrations and establishing, inter alia, common risk evaluation criteria, control measures and priority control areas. Controls based upon such information and criteria shall be carried out without prejudice to other controls carried out in accordance with paragraphs 1 and 2 or with other provisions in force. The Commission, without prejudice to paragraph 2 of this Article, shall, in accordance with the regulatory procedure referred to in Article 184(2), adopt implementing measures laying down the following: common risk management framework; common criteria and priority control areas; the risk information and analysis to be exchanged between customs administrations. Where, in respect of the same goods, controls other than customs controls are to be performed by competent authorities other than the customs authorities, customs authorities shall, in close cooperation with those other authorities, endeavour to have those controls performed, wherever possible, at the same time and place as customs controls (one-stop-shop), with customs authorities having the coordinating role in achieving this. In the framework of the controls referred to in this Section, customs and other competent authorities may, where necessary for the purposes of minimising risk and combating fraud, exchange with each other and with the Commission data received in the context of the entry, exit, transit, transfer, storage and end-use of goods, including postal traffic, moved between the customs territory of the Community and other territories, the presence and movement within the customs territory of non-Community goods and goods placed under the end-use procedure, and the results of any control. Customs authorities and the Commission may also exchange such data with each other for the purpose of ensuring a uniform application of Community customs legislation. The customs authorities may, after releasing the goods and in order to ascertain the accuracy of the particulars contained in the summary or customs declaration, inspect any documents and data relating to the operations in respect of the goods in question or to prior or subsequent commercial operations involving those goods. Those authorities may also examine such goods and/or take samples where it is still possible for them to do so. Such inspections may be carried out at the premises of the holder of the goods or his representative, of any other person directly or indirectly involved in those operations in a business capacity or of any other person in possession of those documents and data for business purposes. Customs controls or formalities shall be carried out in respect of the cabin and hold baggage of persons either taking an intra-Community flight, or making an intra-Community sea crossing, only where the customs legislation provides for such controls or formalities. Paragraph 1 shall apply without prejudice to either of the following: security and safety checks; checks linked to prohibitions or restrictions. The Commission shall, in accordance with the regulatory procedure referred to in Article 184(2), adopt measures for the implementation of this Article, laying down the cases in which and the conditions under which customs controls and formalities may be applied to the following: the cabin and hold baggage of the following: persons taking a flight in an aircraft which comes from a non-Community airport and which, after a stopover at a Community airport, continues to another Community airport; persons taking a flight in an aircraft which stops over at a Community airport before continuing to a non-Community airport; persons using a maritime service provided by the same vessel and comprising successive legs departing from, calling at or terminating in a non-Community port; persons on board pleasure craft and tourist or business aircraft; cabin and hold baggage: arriving at a Community airport on board an aircraft coming from a non-Community airport and transferred at that Community airport to another aircraft proceeding on an intra-Community flight; loaded at a Community airport onto an aircraft proceeding on an intra-Community flight for transfer at another Community airport to an aircraft whose destination is a non-Community airport.

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Source: EUR-Lex (Cellar) · retrieved 2026-11-07 · Text as adopted (Official Journal); later amendments are not incorporated in this text.