Customs duty upheld on post-Brexit vehicle imports as company failed to prove entitlement to relief

The High Court dismissed an appeal by a transport company challenging the imposition of customs duties on the importation of second-hand vehicles from Great Britain after Brexit. The court found that the company was not entitled to returned goods relief or preferential tariff treatment, chiefly because it could not provide the necessary documentation to support its claims and had failed to establish its status as a customs representative rather than an importer. The judge ruled that the loss of Union customs status by operation of law at the end of the Brexit transition period was not equivalent to goods being 'taken out' of the EU for the purposes of returned goods relief, and that the relevant EU legal provisions were clear. The court concluded that the customs authority was correct to treat the company as the liable importer and to require actual proofs of entitlement to any relief, and rejected arguments that requests for documentation were irrational or disproportionate.