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The free movement of goods is one of the founding principles of the original EEC, and remains one of the most important in the EU. In outline, the intention is to allow full and unrestricted trade between member states, and prohibit member states from favouring domestically-produced products over imported ones.
In order to ensure free movement of goods, EC law defines three main sets of provisions:
It should be noted that, although the ECTreaty divides provisions on the free movement of goods into these three distinct sets of measures, in reality there is some overlap between them.
For example, if a particular state does not manufacturer a particular product itself, but imposes a consumption tax on that product (as the UK does on, for example, many liqueurs and spirits), is this a `charge have equivalent effect to a duty' under Art. 25? Or is it a discriminatory internal tax under Art. 90? Or neither? The distinction is important because a duty in breach of Art. 25 is automatically unlawful. However, an internal tax may_ be lawful if the member state can show that the tax imposed was part of a general system of taxation that applies irrespective of the source of the goods.
Similarly, an internal tax applied to a particular product may have the effect of discouraging importation of that product, and thus have a similar effect to a quantitative restriction. A particular problem in this area of law is whether, and how, it applies to intangible property. See, for example, FreeMovementAndIntellectualProperty.
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