Belgian customs authorities in court after false accusations of fraud

After acting hesitantly in the past, customs officials at Liège Airport (LGG) now appear to be overzealous when it comes to fighting against fraudulent imports. A Belgian court heard how customs officials wrongly accused several importers of fraud due to previous failures, resulting in a fine of 251 million euros from European regulators in 2021. The customs authority felt ‘overwhelmed by the massive influx of goods from Chinese online shops’.

Liège Cargo Agency (LCA) and its managing director Eric Bruckman were the last to be released after the Liège Criminal Court cleared them of customs clearance offences. Commenting on the court's decision, LCA's lawyer said: “Operators' trust was betrayed by customs: they were allowed to act in this way for a long period, only to be told years later that the opposite was true.’

However, local media reported that Bruckman would have to wait until next year to learn the outcome of other charges brought against him and LCA by customs officials.

Several customs officials told the court about the ‘chaos’ caused by the explosion of e-commerce traffic from China at Belgian border crossings, leading to problems in valuing the huge quantities of the cheaper imported goods.

It was decided to value the goods at 30-40 percent of their selling price on e-commerce platforms. This method was later rejected by the customs authorities and caused confusion. With his release, Bruckman joins the list of LGG-based companies ECDC Logistics and BeCargo, which were both wrongly accused of customs offenses. The former won twelve cases, including accusations of undervaluing imported goods by millions.