According to its official bulletin from the 24^th of May 2022, the Constitutional Court of Romania admitted the exception of unconstitutionality and found that the provisions of art. 270 para. (3) of Law no. 86/2006 on the Romanian Customs Code are unconstitutional.

The provisions of art. 270 para. (3) of Law no. 86/2006 have the following content: “They are assimilated to the crime of smuggling and are punished according to par. (1) the collection, possession, production, transport, taking over, storage, delivery, sale and sale of goods or merchandise to be placed under a customs procedure knowing that they are smuggled or intended for smuggling."

In arguing its solution, the Court found that the deed committed under the conditions of art. 270 para. (3) of Law no. 86/2006 is a derivative, correlative offense and, with respect to most of the actions / operations that constitute the material element of the offense, it is a subsequent offense, borrowing from the nature of the deed from which the goods / goods to be placed under a customs procedure - respectively from the offense provided in par. (1) in art. 270 of the Customs Code or of the offenses provided in par. (2) lit. a), b) and c) of the same article. Thus, given that para. (2) lit. a) in art. 270 of Law no. 86/2006 has established a value ceiling, the regulation of a value limit similar to the one established by the mentioned paragraph is necessary for a fair individualization of the punishment, corresponding to the social danger. So the Court found that, disregarding the principle of ultima ratio in criminal matters, the provisions of art. 270 para. (3) of Law no. 86/2006 do not regulate a value threshold below which the deed does not constitute a crime, contrary to the constitutional principle of the rule of law, enshrined in art. 1 para. (3) of the Fundamental Law.

Therefore, the consequences from the perspective of incriminating the crime of assimilated smuggling, provided by art. 270 para. (3), on which, in the context of the recent intervention of the Constitutional Court, we consider that it operated a total decriminalization.