Court upholds 306,000 UAH fine for importing 50 laptops without customs declaration

Customs officers discover large batch of computers in minibus

Citizen Ivan Samuliak, who was driving a Mercedes-Benz Sprinter minibus, was returning from a private trip from Germany. The intermediate point of entry was “Krakivets – Korchova”. During customs clearance, the driver chose the “red corridor” and filled out a declaration, listing personal belongings weighing 100 kg and a generator weighing 32 kg.

However, during a detailed inspection of the vehicle, customs officers found goods that were not listed in the documents. Fifty units of used portable computer equipment were found in the minibus cabin. The devices had no factory packaging or charging devices. Among the seized property were:

• 37 Apple MacBook Pro laptops (models A1706 and A1398);
• 7 DELL Latitude 5480 laptops;
• 6 DELL Latitude E5570 laptops.

Value of seized property exceeded one million hryvnias

According to the conclusion of a specialised expert from the State Customs Service of Ukraine, the total value of the discovered devices was 1,020,866 UAH. The Lviv Customs classified the driver's actions under Part 2 of Article 471 of the Customs Code of Ukraine, which provides for liability for the non-declaration of goods moving across the customs border.

In accordance with current legislation, Ivan Samuliak was fined 30% of the value of the goods, amounting to 306,259.80 UAH.

Court rejects driver's attempts to reduce the sanction

The court proceedings were heard by the Halychtskyi District Court of Lviv in case No. 461/6849/22. The driver did not dispute the fact of violating customs rules but challenged the amount of the fine. In court, he emphasised that he was acting only as a carrier and that the actual value of the equipment was significantly lower than the experts' assessment.

As evidence, the plaintiff submitted an invoice for 4,240 euros and attempted to challenge the State Customs Service's conclusion. Meanwhile, the court noted that this document was not submitted during customs clearance and also did not contain proper evidence of actual payment and purchase of the goods.

On 27 December 2022, the court denied the claim. The judge confirmed the lawfulness of the customs experts' actions in determining the value of the property and left the Lviv Customs decision to impose a fine of 306,259.80 UAH unchanged.