European Union – Customs and Excise. The Court of Justice of the European Union ruled that art 9(1) of Council Directive (EEC) 92/12, as amended, read in conjunction with art 7 of that directive, should be interpreted as allowing a member state to designate as liable to excise duty a person who held for commercial purposes, on the fiscal territory of that state, products subject to excise duty that had been released for consumption in another member state, in circumstances such as those of the case before the referring court, even though that person had not been the first holder of those products in the member state of destination.