Challenging a French Customs Reassessment: Recovery Notice, Suspension of Payment and Appeals

A post-clearance audit ends with a proposed assessment, then with a recovery notice (avis de mise en recouvrement, or AMR) that often covers three years of declarations. From that point, the company has short deadlines and precise levers: the right to be heard, the administrative challenge, suspension of payment against a guarantee, then the civil court. Each missed step consolidates the debt and narrows the room for discussion.

This page describes the procedure as it results from the French Customs Code, recodified by Ordinance no. 2026-265 of 8 April 2026 and in force since 1 May 2026, and from the Union Customs Code (Regulation (EU) no. 952/2013), then how the firm acts at each stage. For the audit itself, customs value, origin and classification, see our page on the customs lawyer in France.

The risk: an enforceable debt, not suspended by the appeal, carrying interest and the Treasury’s lien

The recovery notice is issued and made enforceable by the administration itself (Article L. 323-6 of the Customs Code). Appeals do not suspend its enforcement (Article L. 323-7; Article 45(1) of the Union Customs Code). Late-payment interest runs at 0.20% per month (Article L. 321-3). The debt benefits from the Treasury’s lien and is published above a threshold (Articles L. 323-10 and L. 323-11); the accounting officer may use administrative third-party attachment and holds a legal mortgage over the debtor’s real property (Articles L. 323-20 and L. 323-21).

The right of recovery runs for three years from the date the customs debt was incurred (Article 103(1) of the Union Code; Article L. 322-1). Where the act was liable to criminal proceedings, the period is extended to a minimum of five and a maximum of ten years (Article 103(2)), and the notification of an official report interrupts it up to the tenth year (Article L. 322-2). Omissions revealed by court proceedings may be recovered until the end of the year following the decision, within a ten-year limit (Article L. 322-3).

The legal answer: four moments, four deadlines

The first moment is the prior adversarial exchange. For import or export duties, it follows the Union Code: the authorities communicate the grounds on which they intend to notify the debt and give the debtor a period to express its point of view (Article 22(6)). For the other duties and taxes collected by French customs, a reasoned proposed assessment is sent to the debtor, who has thirty days to submit observations, and any rejection must be reasoned (Articles L. 311-3, L. 311-7 and L. 311-8). This phase suspends the recovery period (Article L. 311-9; Article 103(3) of the Union Code). This is where most of the case is decided: customs value, origin, tariff classification, the capacity of the declarant.

The second moment is the challenge to the recovery notice, addressed to the authority that issued it within three years of its notification; the administration must decide within six months (Article L. 331-1). The third is suspension of payment: requested in the challenge and accompanied by guarantees, it defers payment until the dispute is resolved; failing sufficient guarantees, the accounting officer demands them within one month and may then take protective measures, while a waiver remains possible where guarantees would cause serious economic or social difficulties (Article L. 331-2; Article 45(3) of the Union Code). Suspension halts both enforceability and the limitation period for recovery (Article L. 331-3). Decisions on guarantees may be challenged within fifteen days before the president of the civil court in summary proceedings (Article L. 332-3).

The fourth moment is judicial: within two months of the administration’s reply, or of the expiry of the six-month period without reply, the debtor brings the case before the civil court (tribunal judiciaire) of the place where the notice was issued (Articles L. 332-1, L. 332-2 and L. 332-5). In parallel, several routes reduce the bill: repayment or remission of duties for overcharging, error of the authorities or equity, applied for within three years of notification of the debt (Articles 116 and 121 of the Union Code); voluntary regularisation, which cuts late-payment interest by 50% before any audit and by 30% during an audit (Article L. 321-4), and remission of interest and surcharges (Article L. 321-5); and finally a settlement on penalties, available until a final judgment is handed down (Articles L. 613-1 to L. 613-3). The protection against changes in administrative doctrine (Article L. 312-1) does not, however, apply to the application of the Union Code (Article L. 312-5).

How the firm acts

The firm reviews the audit file and the declarations at issue, quantifies the real exposure (duties, import VAT, interest, the fine incurred) and drafts the observations within the adversarial period, which is the moment when the administration can still step back. It then prepares the challenge to the recovery notice and the guarantee file (bank guarantee, deposit), negotiates suspension of payment with the accounting officer, and issues proceedings before the civil court if the reply is unfavourable or does not come.

Depending on the case, it runs in parallel an application for remission or repayment under the Union Code and a settlement on penalties, so that the challenge on principle and the negotiation on amount move forward together. E-commerce operators will find the framework of the 2026 reform in our guide to the European customs reform.

Typical cases handled

The situations below are illustrative scenarios, anonymised. They show when the firm steps in and what the work involves.

Recovery notice on licence royalties

An importer receives a notice covering three years of duties calculated by adding trademark royalties to the customs value. Challenge filed in time, suspension of payment obtained against a bank guarantee, then discussion of whether the royalties were a condition of sale: the debt is cut by more than half.

Proposed assessment left unanswered

An SME receives a proposed assessment based on a tariff reclassification and assumes it can wait for the recovery notice. The firm files documented observations on day twenty-five; the administration drops the reclassification on two tariff lines and the remaining amount is regularised with reduced interest.

Protective measures taken before any challenge

A notice served two years earlier was never challenged; the accounting officer has attached receivables held by a third party. The challenge is still admissible within the three-year period, guarantees are put in place and the president of the civil court is seised in summary proceedings to limit the protective measures.

Frequently Asked Questions

What happens after a customs audit?

The administration communicates its findings and the operator is given an opportunity to make written observations before the decision is adopted, which is the right to be heard guaranteed by the Union Customs Code. A notice of the customs debt then follows, setting out the duties, the value added tax and the penalties claimed together with the grounds relied on. That first exchange is the most important moment in the file, because a technical demonstration carries far more weight there than after the debt has been notified.

Can the reassessment be contested before it becomes final?

Yes, and it should be. Observations in response to the findings, supported by contracts, invoices, technical documentation, laboratory analyses and supplier declarations, regularly reduce or remove a reassessment. Where the point concerns classification or origin, a binding ruling obtained for future shipments can also influence the treatment of past ones. Once the debt is notified, an administrative appeal remains open within the applicable time limit, and it is a genuine review rather than a formality to be endured.

Which courts hear customs disputes?

Customs litigation is divided. Claims concerning the existence and the amount of the debt go before the judicial courts, while certain decisions of the administration belong to the administrative courts, and questions of European law may be referred to the Court of Justice of the European Union. That division makes the first step decisive: bringing the claim before the wrong order of courts costs time which the limitation periods do not give back, so the route is settled before anything is filed.

Can payment be suspended while the dispute is pending?

Payment may be deferred or suspended where a guarantee is provided, and the Union Customs Code allows the authorities to suspend enforcement of a decision where they have good reason to believe it is inconsistent with customs legislation or where irreparable damage is to be feared. A guarantee is generally required, and that constraint, rather than the merits, often determines whether a business can afford to litigate. Negotiating the guarantee is therefore part of the strategy from the outset.

Can penalties be reduced or settled?

Frequently. The administration has a settlement practice in customs matters which allows a negotiated outcome covering the duties, the penalties and the consequences, and a settlement brings the dispute and any prosecution to an end. Whether to settle is a commercial decision informed by the strength of the legal position: a solid classification argument is worth defending, while a documentary failure is usually better settled. The two routes are assessed together rather than one after the other.

Which arguments succeed in practice?

Those built on documents rather than on principle. Classification arguments founded on the objective characteristics of the product and on the explanatory notes, origin arguments supported by manufacturing records, value arguments showing that a royalty was not a condition of sale, and procedural arguments on the right to be heard and on limitation. Arguments resting on good faith alone rarely succeed, because customs liability is largely objective. Building the record at the time of the operations is what decides the case years later.