European Business Law, the fourth volume in our series, shows how the European authorities simultaneously abolish all restrictions on access to and exercise of economic activities and support the growth of domestic markets, through the harmonization the internal legislation or the enactment of genuinely unified regulations.

European Business Law

Where a provisional determination of dumping and injury to the Union industry has been made, the exporting producers concerned may offer undertakings or the Commission may suggest such undertakings (Regulation No 2016/1036, Article 8). The undertakings offered will not necessarily be accepted and exporters are not obliged to enter into the undertakings suggested by the Commission. They consist for …

Conditions of acceptance

Where a provisional determination of dumping and injury to the Union industry has been made, the exporting producers concerned may offer undertakings or the Commission may suggest such undertakings (Regulation No 2016/1036, Article 8). The undertakings offered will not necessarily be accepted and exporters are not obliged to enter into the undertakings suggested by the Commission. They consist for exporting producers in voluntarily and satisfactorily submitting offers to revise their prices or to cease exports at dumped prices. They must be offered in a non-confidential version so that they may be made available to the interested parties to the investigation (Art. 8(4)).

Undertakings may be offered throughout the procedure until the end of the time-period laid down to submit views referred to in Article 20(5) of the regulation. In “exceptional cases”, the undertakings may be offered after that time-limit. Thus, a late offer of price undertaking could be accepted taking account of the company's efforts throughout the procedure to offer an acceptable undertaking . 

Only the exporting producer  having cooperated in the investigation  may offer undertakings. The status of exporter implies that the company has exported the product concerned during the investigation period . This is not the case for a company which has not been authorized to export and which has made all its exports through a State-controlled trading company , or which has had no sales to the Union for several consecutive quarters or during the reference period of the investigation and which has no contractual obligations to do so in a near future . The company which has not the status of exporter will be invited by the Commission to withdraw its undertaking in order to avoid undue administrative burden .

Undertakings may also be offered by a company which has the status of new exporter . A mere change of name is not sufficient to qualify a company as a new exporter in order to offer a new undertaking . However, the fact that the groups of companies to which exporters with undertakings belong have been reorganized or have changed their names may justify the transfer of their undertakings to other companies within the relevant group, or the change of their name on the list of companies from which undertakings are accepted and on the list of companies benefiting from an exemption to the duties .

Lastly, the undertaking offer must be submitted by an independent operator. A trader  or a commercial intermediary having purchased the product concerned from a non-cooperating producer and selling it in order to export it to a related company  cannot offer undertakings which would be impossible to monitor.

Commission Decision No 2002/498 of 5 June 2002, imports of urea (Lithuania), LawLex201100000542JBJ, for an undertaking submitted prior to the imposition of definitive measures, but at such a late stage that it was impossible to include its acceptance in the definitive regulation.

and not importers: Council Regulation (EC) No 535/87 of 23 February 1987, imports of plain paper photocopiers (Japan), LawLex201200000250JBJ; Case C-133/87 Nashua Corporation and others v Commission and Council [1990] ECR I-719, LawLex200900000556JBJ, as regards OEM importers; or traders: Council Regulation (EU) No 495/98 of 23 February 1998, imports of ferro-silico-manganese (China, Ukraine, Brazil, South Africa, Russia), LawLex200900002477JBJ.

Council Regulation (EU) No 495/98 of 23 February 1998, imports of ferro-silico-manganese (China, Ukraine, Brazil, South Africa, Russia), LawLex200900002477JBJ.

Council Regulation (EU) No 1675/2003 of 22 September 2003, imports of solution of urea and ammonium nitrate (Algeria, Belarus, Lithuania, Russia, Ukraine), LawLex200900002538JBJ.

See Council Regulation EU No 92/2002 of 17 January 2002, imposed on imports of urea originating in Belarus, Bulgaria, Croatia, Estonia, Libya, Lithuania, Romania and the Ukraine, LawLex200900002602JBJ, which considers that unsatisfactory level of cooperation renders the risk of accepting an undertaking unreasonably high and the guarantees to assure a proper monitoring unsatisfactory; See, also, Council Regulation (EU) No 1995/2000 of 18 September 2000, imports of solutions of urea and ammonium nitrate (Algeria, Belarus, Lithuania, Russia, Ukraine, the Slovak Republic), LawLex200900002574JBJ, as regards an intermediate trade who purchased the product concerned from a non-cooperating exporting producer.

By contrast, Commission Regulation (EC) No 1497/2001 of 20 July 2001, imports of urea (Belarus, Bulgaria, Croatia, Estonia, Libya, Lithuania, Rumania, Ukraine, Egypt, Poland), LawLex200900002834JBJ.

Council Regulation (EU) No 1339/2002 of 22 July 2002, imports of sulphanilic acid (China, India), LawLex200900002564JBJ.

Commission Decision No 98/540 of 11 September 1998, imports of farmed Atlantic salmon originating in Norway, LawLex201100000603JBJ; Council Regulation (EU) No 297/1999 of 8 February 1999, imports of farmed Atlantic salmon (Norway), LawLex200900002495JBJ.

Council Regulation (EU) No 2039/98 of 24 September 1998, imports of farmed Atlantic salmon (Norway), LawLex200900002486JBJ; No 297/1999 of 8 February 1999, imports of farmed Atlantic salmon (Norway), LawLex200900002495JBJ.

According to Article 11(4), a new exporter "can show that it is not related to any of the exporters or producers in the exporting country which are subject to the anti-dumping measures on the product, and that it has actually exported to the Union following the investigation period, or where it can demonstrate that it has entered into an irrevocable contractual obligation to export a significant quantity to the Union".

Commission Regulation (EC) No 2249/98 of 19 October 1998, imports of farmed Atlantic salmon (Norway), LawLex200900002867JBJ.

Council Regulation (EU) No 2606/2000 of 27 November 2000, imports of farmed Atlantic salmon (Norway), LawLex200900002595JBJ; Commission Regulation (EC) No 1593/2002 of 3 September2002, imports of farmed Atlantic salmon (Norway), LawLex200900002774JBJ.

European Business Law

454. Conditions of acceptance

Demandez un accès gratuit
au contenu exclusif Livv – juristes d’entreprise

Les décisions de justice citées dans ce paragraphe :

Les notions juridiques connexes

454. Conditions of acceptance

Demandez un accès gratuit au contenu exclusif Livv – juristes d’entreprise

Les décisions de justice citées dans ce paragraphe :

Les notions juridiques connexes

Demandez un accès gratuit
au contenu exclusif Livv – juristes d’entreprise