Submitting an application for authorisation to establish a regular service

If you are a shipping company established in the EU, you can apply for a liner service for customs purposes. In a liner shipping service, you transport Union goods from one EU port to another EU port without the goods having to undergo customs clearance again there.

Shipping companies established in the European Union (EU) may, under certain conditions, apply for a liner service for customs purposes.

Goods transported by sea normally leave the customs territory of the European Union and must be re-customs cleared on arrival at the port of destination. However, as a holder of the authorisation to establish a regular shipping service for customs purposes, you can transport Union goods by sea between ports of the European Union without having to undergo customs clearance again at the port of destination.

It is also possible to carry non-Union goods by regular shipping services, but for these goods the transit procedure is compulsory.

If you are not an Authorised Economic Operator (AEO), please complete the Customs Authorisation Questionnaire Parts I and II in addition to the main application.
In addition to the main application, you also hand in the "Supplementary sheet national data".
Parts I and II of the Customs Authorization Questionnaire as well as the "Supplementary Sheet National Data" are to be submitted directly to the competent main customs office with reference to the application number generated by the EU Trader Portal.

• Forms: yes
• Online procedure possible: yes
• Written form required: yes
• Personal appearance required: no

Authorisation is granted only to shipping companies established in the European Union which have not committed any serious or repeated infringements of customs and tax legislation or serious criminal offences in the course of their economic activity.
General conditions for the establishment of a regular shipping service for customs purposes:

• a formal authorisation must be in place,
• only seaports within the European Union may be used,
• no free zones in a port of the European Union may be entered,
• no goods may be transhipped at sea,
• the names of the vessels engaged on the regular service, the port at which the vessel commences the service and the ports of call must be registered with the authorising customs authority.

• Appeal. Detailed information on how to file an appeal can be found in the rejection or approval notice.
• Action before the fiscal court

• If you wish to apply for an authorisation to set up a regular service, you must submit the application in electronic form via the EU Trader Portal.
• To access the EU-Trader portal you will need to have
  • a user account. If you do not have a user account yet,
    • complete the application for the establishment of an EU user account (form 05700),
    • send the form by e-mail to the Master Data Management Team of the Directorate General of Customs - Dresden office.
  • an EORI number (Economic Operators Registration and Identification number). If you do not yet have an EORI number, you must apply for one in your user account in the Citizens and Business Customer Portal of the Customs Administration. The user account gives you access to the "EORI number administration" and you can apply for a new EORI number or change your EORI-specific data at any time.
• Log in to the EU Trader Portal with your access data.
• Complete and submit the application for the authorisation type "RSS - regular services (RSS)".
• Send the "Supplementary Sheet National Data" and, if applicable, Parts I and II of the Customs Authorization Questionnaire directly to the responsible main customs office with reference to the application number generated by the EU-Trader Portal.
• If the main customs office has successfully checked whether all requirements for an authorization are met, an authorization is issued electronically in the EU-Trader Portal.
• If the requirements are not met, you will receive a notice of rejection of the application by post.

You must apply for the permit before you set up a regular service.

You will usually receive a decision on your application within 120 days of acceptance.

There are no costs.