Demo equipment that is not for sale
Does demonstration equipment count as an import the same way a sale does? Temporary admission, the 24-month limit, and what happens if a demo unit is sold.
Demo equipment does not count as an import the same way a sale does. A unit may be brought into the EU to be shown, tested, or used at a site, and then taken home again. That is not the same customs event as a unit brought in to be sold. The EU has a specific procedure for it, and using the wrong one is how a demo tour turns into an unplanned duty bill.
The procedure: temporary admission
Temporary admission is set out in Articles 250 and 251 of the Union Customs Code, Regulation (EU) No 952/2013. Under Article 250, non-Union goods intended for re-export may be brought in and put to specific use “with total or partial relief from import duty.” The relief exists because the goods are not staying: they enter, do their job, and leave again in essentially the state they arrived in.
Two conditions matter most for a demo unit. First, re-export has to be the plan from the start, not a fallback if the sale does not happen. Second, under Article 250(a), “the goods are not intended to undergo any change, except normal depreciation due to the use made of them.” Ordinary wear from being demonstrated is fine. Being modified, consumed, or incorporated into something else is not.
Article 250 also expects the holder of the procedure to be established outside the customs territory of the Union, except where the rules allow otherwise. For a manufacturer sending its own demo unit into the EU, that condition is usually the easy part. What takes more preparation is the authorisation itself, applied for before the goods move. So does a guarantee, where customs asks for one, against the duty that would fall due if the goods were not in fact re-exported.
How long can it stay?
Article 251 sets the standard maximum at 24 months, for the same purpose and under the responsibility of the same authorisation holder. Where the authorised use genuinely cannot be completed in that time, an extension can be granted. The overall limit is 10 years, except in unforeseeable circumstances. A unit may have been in the field for two years without being re-exported or sold. For most demo programmes, that unit is already past the point where the arrangement needs a decision, not an extension by default.
Why this differs from a straightforward import
A straightforward import, release for free circulation, settles duty once. The goods then become, for trading purposes, European goods with no further condition attached to them. Temporary admission is the opposite kind of arrangement. The relief is granted precisely because nothing is being sold, and it stays conditional on the goods actually leaving again. A team may import a demo unit as an ordinary sale, to avoid the paperwork of an authorisation. It then pays duty it did not need to pay. A team may instead import the unit under temporary admission, then quietly leave it in the field past the authorised period. That team has a unit whose customs status no longer matches what was declared.
What happens if the unit is sold
If a demo unit stops being a demo unit, because a customer wants to buy the exact one they tested, the temporary admission procedure ends. The goods leave that regime and are released for free circulation instead. That is the same status as goods imported to be sold from the start. Duty and import VAT become payable at that point, on the unit, calculated the normal way for goods entering free circulation.
That is not a penalty. It is simply that the relief was conditional on re-export, and a sale is the opposite of re-export. Teams that run frequent demo-to-sale conversions plan for this rather than treating each sale as a surprise. In one route, the unit goes home and a fresh, saleable unit ships to the customer. In the other, the demo unit itself is declared for free circulation and duty and import VAT are paid on it.
Beyond this, two points are a question for the customs adviser handling the authorisation. One is the exact evidence a customs authority wants to see. The other is how the authorisation is structured for a programme with several units moving at once. Commission Delegated Regulation (EU) 2015/2446, which sits under the Union Customs Code, sets out further detail for demonstration and professional equipment specifically. The finer points of that text are worth confirming with a customs adviser before an authorisation is applied for. They should not be assumed from a general description.
The procedure is set out as the Code structures it, as general information rather than customs or tax advice. How it applies to a specific demo programme is a question for the client’s customs adviser.
How this runs at EFC
At EFC’s base in Portugal, run with our logistics partner, demo units move alongside the rest of a brand’s European stock. So a unit going to a trade show or a customer site is handled the same way. That holds whether the unit is travelling for a demo or shipping against an order. We ask early which units are meant to come back and which are candidates to convert to a sale. That answer decides which procedure the unit should be under from the first import, not after the fact.
Spare parts and swap units sitting in Europe against a known failure pattern are covered separately in holding spare parts and demo units in Europe. What happens when a unit goes back for repair rather than re-export is in the return that crosses the border twice.
Sources
| Label | Value | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Temporary admission, scope and relief | non-Union goods “intended for re-export” may be subject to specific use “with total or partial relief from import duty” | Regulation (EU) No 952/2013, Article 250, EUR-Lex, opened 2026-09-25 |
| Temporary admission, condition on the goods | ”the goods are not intended to undergo any change, except normal depreciation due to the use made of them” | Regulation (EU) No 952/2013, Article 250(a), EUR-Lex, opened 2026-09-25 |
| Temporary admission, holder established outside the Union | ”the holder of the procedure is established outside the customs territory of the Union, except where otherwise provided” | Regulation (EU) No 952/2013, Article 250(c), EUR-Lex, opened 2026-09-25 |
| Temporary admission, maximum period | 24 months for the same purpose under the same authorisation holder, extendable in exceptional circumstances to an overall limit of 10 years | Regulation (EU) No 952/2013, Article 251, EUR-Lex, opened 2026-09-25 |