Elena Legashova, Managing Partner of Iusland Law Office, comments on the conflict with Pulkovo Customs regarding the inclusion of license fees in the customs value.

“Delovoy Peterburg” published a commentary by Elena Legashova in the article ‘The successor of Leroy Merlin fought off the claims of Pulkovo customs for 700 million rubles’.

The author of the article talks about the dispute between Leroy Merlin Vostok (now Le Monlid) and Pulkovo Customs, which dates back to 2022. The article describes the entire history of the dispute and a new round in connection with the ruling of the Thirteenth Arbitration Court of Appeal, which overturned the decision of the first instance, which recognized in April 2024 justified the position of Pulkovo Customs on additional taxation of LLC “Le Monlid” 806.9 million rubles.

According to Elena Legashova, the ruling of the court of appellate instance seems to be justified and reflects the position of the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation regarding the impossibility of imposing an economically unjustified obligation on a company when license fees are only partially related to the imported goods and the rest to other activities and factors.

The full text of the article can be found at https://www.dp.ru