In the opinion of the European Court of Justice (ECJ), it is
permissible under European law to request the private tax
identification numbers – in particular including those of
principal managers – as part of the reassessment of the
criteria of the customs status as Authorized Economic Operator
(AEO) by the customs authority.
The ECJ has been invoked for a preliminary ruling by the Fiscal
Court in Düsseldorf. As part of the reassessment of the
criteria of the status as Authorized Economic Operator (AEO),
Customs had wanted to check the tax-reliability of employees and
management board members of the complainant, Deutsche Post AG. The
customs authority had requested, inter alia, the private tax ID and
the details of the tax offices responsible for the taxation of the
members of the executive board, the members of the supervisory
board, the principal managers, and the persons in charge of
managing customs matters or those responsible for dealing with such
matters. In
