Delivering goods

Transporting rules and the applicable VAT and customs regimes can transform the transportation of goods into aobsn tacle course. We help you to avoid them.

A regulatory framework which you must know in order to determine your strategy

Transporting goods means bearing the risks of transport, as these apply.

The platform operator must monitor the impact, for all executed transactions, of the contractual choices made by its sellers (incoterms, transfer of risk of loss or damage to goods, etc.).

Transporting goods also means concluding transportation agreements.

The platform operator will be bound by transport agreements with professionals. In this regard, the operator must understand the limitation of liability clauses provided or legally imposed in certain contracts and, as appropriate, sign declarations of value or interest for increasing liability caps.

Transporting goods also means knowing the limits of proprietary transport.

The operator may need to determine whether it is necessary to establish a company authorised to operate as a carrier or freight forwarder (commissionaire de transport), in order to transport the goods.

Lastly, transporting goods means determining any customs duties (type, value, origin) and, as appropriate, restrictions on movement, as well as the VAT due and the person subject to VAT.

Comprehensive monitoring to assist you in the options to be examined and to help you with the choices to be made

Our teams have these skills and can assist and support you with:

• identifying the liabilities of each operator involved in the transportation of goods depending on the structure chosen ;
• drafting all transportation contracts, freight forwarding contracts, logistics services agreements and customs agency agreements;
• discharging customs procedures and formalities;
• qualifying the platform's activity: service provider or buyer-reseller?
• identifying flows for which the platform is regarded as a buyer-reseller for VAT purposes;
• determining the transportation organiser (platform or seller);
• adapting the product import scheme in the European Union, according to the adopted model (marketplace, dropshipping);
• qualifying the sale for VAT purposes (intra-EU sale or distance selling of imported goods) and determining the applicable VAT regime;
• establishing the appropriate invoicing flows;
• knowing the post-Brexit constraints on flows to and from the UK.