Chapter IV: Powers of customs officers

Customs officers may inspect goods, means of transport and persons under the conditions set out in this article and in articles 60-1 to 60-10. The same articles 60-1 to 60-10 apply to the implementation of : 1° This Code and for the purposes of fraud detection ; 2° Regulation (EU) No 952/2013 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 9 October 2013 establishing the European Union Customs Code…

Customs officers may, at any time, inspect goods, means of transport and persons in or moving around the following areas and places: 1° The land area within the customs radius defined in article 44 ; 2° Customs offices designated pursuant to article 47 ; 3° Ports, airports and rail or road stations open to international traffic, as designated by order of the Minister responsible for customs, as well as the…

Where there are reasonable grounds for suspecting the commission or attempted commission of an offence referred to in Section 1 of Chapter VI of Title XII and Chapter IV of Title XIV of this Code and Chapter II of Title V of Book I of the Monetary and Financial Code, customs officers may also carry out, at any time, inspect goods, means of transport and persons present or moving on…

Apart from the cases provided for in Article 60-2, customs officers may, at any time, visit goods, means of transport and persons present or moving in the places mentioned in the same Article 60-2, in order to investigate customs offences relating to the goods mentioned in Chapter II of Title VIII and in 6° of Article 427 as well as those dispatched under a suspensive procedure. They may carry out…

For the purposes of inspecting goods placed under customs supervision pursuant to Article 134 of Regulation (EU) No 952/2013 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 9 October 2013 laying down the Union Customs Code, customs officers shall have access to the premises and places where they are likely to be held between 8 a.m. and 8 p.m. or, outside these hours, when access to the public is…

With the exception of those carried out in the places mentioned in 2° and 3° of article 60-1, excluding the surroundings of these places, visiting rights may only be implemented in the same place for a period not exceeding, for all operations together, twelve consecutive hours and they may not consist of a systematic check of persons present or circulating in the places and areas mentioned in articles 60-1 to…

Visits to persons may consist of palpation or a search of their clothing, luggage and any other personal belongings, excluding any full search. With the person’s written consent, they may also be tested for substances or plants classified as narcotics. These operations are carried out in conditions guaranteeing respect for the dignity of the individual. They are performed out of public view, unless circumstances make this impossible.

Customs officers may only immobilise means of transport and goods or keep persons at their disposal for the time strictly necessary to carry out the physical inspection operations, which include checking the goods, means of transport or person and, where applicable, seizures. After four hours from the start of the inspection operations, the public prosecutor is informed of these operations by any means. This obligation to inform does not apply…

Each visit to the premises or places referred to in articles 60-1, 60-2 and 60-4 shall take place in the presence of the person concerned or their representative or, failing this, a person requested for this purpose by the customs officers and who is not under their administrative authority. The inspection of means of transport takes place in the presence of the driver, the owner or, failing this, a person…

Customs officers may only take statements with a view to recognising objects discovered during the visit. Where a person concerned by the visit and suspected of having committed a customs offence is the subject of a measure of constraint against his person, he may not be heard in accordance with the procedures laid down in Article 67 F.