The Member State customs administrations and empowered authorities that apply customs legislation in import workflows.
Customs authorities are the public authorities on the customs side of the CBAM import boundary. They are not the same as CBAM competent authorities, but their work defines the customs procedures and declarations that CBAM relies on.
CBAM Article 3, point 14 defines customs authorities by reference to Union Customs Code Article 5, point 1. The UCC wording covers customs administrations of Member States and other national authorities empowered to apply customs legislation.
Regulation (EU) 2023/956 establishing a carbon border adjustment mechanism
the customs administrations of Member States as defined in Article 5, point (1), of Regulation (EU) No 952/2013;
Reference: Article 3, point 14
Regulation (EU) No 952/2013 laying down the Union Customs Code
"customs authorities" means the customs administrations of the Member States responsible for applying the customs legislation and any other authorities empowered under national law to apply certain customs legislation;
Direct upstream definition imported by CBAM.
Reference: Article 5, point (1)
Customs authorities are the customs administrations of Member States and other authorities empowered under national law to apply certain customs legislation.
Implementation records should identify which customs authority received or supervised the declaration, which customs procedure applied, which registration or EORI information was used, and how customs-facing evidence connects to CBAM compliance records.
Customs authorities supervise border-facing obligations and customs procedures. For evidence systems, that means import events need authority, declaration, actor, and goods references that can be linked without merging customs supervision with CBAM regulator workflows.