62024CO0827_INF
Order of the Court (Ninth Chamber) of 2 September 2025 –Direct Line Inox Impex and Others
(Case C‑827/24)
(Reference for a preliminary ruling – Article 99 of the Rules of Procedure of the Court of Justice – Questions the answer to which may be clearly deduced from the Court’s existing case-law – Common commercial policy – Anti-dumping duties – Importing of seamless stainless steel pipes originating in China and cold-drawn in India – Regulation (EU) 2016/1036 – Article 13(1) – Circumvention – Precluded – Substantial modification – Customs union – Regulation (EU) No 952/2013 – Union Customs Code – Article 60(2) – Acquisition of origin of goods – Primary rule precluding a change of origin of hot-finished steel pipes following the cold-processing of those pipes)
Common commercial policy – Protection against dumping – Circumvention –Precluded – Cold-forming in India of seamless iron or steel pipes or tubes from China – Origin of goods – Determination – Substantial processing or working – Finding by the European Commission that there has been a substantial transformation of those goods – Last, substantial, economically-justified processing or working which confers an Indian origin on those goods
(European Parliament and Council Regulations No 952/2013, Art. 60(2), and 2016/1036, Art. 13(1))
(see paragraphs 22-31)
Operative part
Article 13(1) of Regulation (EU) 2016/1036 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 8 June 2016 on protection against dumped imports from countries not members of the European Union and Article 60(2) of Regulation (EU) No 952/2013 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 9 October 2013 laying down the Union Customs Code
must be interpreted as meaning that the cold-forming in India of seamless iron or steel pipes or tubes from China, in respect of which the European Commission has found that that cold-forming has substantially transformed those goods, inasmuch as it has irreversibly modified their essential characteristics, constitutes (i) a modification which excludes the applicability of Article 13(1) of Regulation 2016/1036 and (ii) a ‘last, substantial, economically-justified processing or working’ within the meaning of Article 60(2) of Regulation No 952/2013 which confers an Indian origin on those goods.