Keywords

Summary



Keywords

1. Actions for annulment - Interest in bringing proceedings - Scope of the action - Action directed against a regulation extending an anti-dumping duty in its entirety - Non-severable nature of the provisions of such a regulation - Admissibility

(EC Treaty, Art. 173 (now, after amendment, Art. 230 EC))

2. Actions for annulment - Natural or legal persons - Measures of direct and individual concern to them - Regulation extending an anti-dumping duty

(EC Treaty, Art. 173, fourth para. (now, after amendment, Art. 230 EC, fourth para.))

3. Actions for annulment - Natural or legal persons - Measures of direct and individual concern to them - Regulation extending an anti-dumping duty - Intermediary importer participating only after the expiry of the time-limit laid down by the regulation opening the investigation

(EC Treaty, Art. 173, fourth para. (now, after amendment, Art. 230 EC, fourth para.))

4. Actions for annulment - Natural or legal persons - Measures of direct and individual concern to them - Regulation extending an anti-dumping duty providing for the establishment of a system of exemptions from the extended duty and regulation exempting from the extended duty - Excluded

(EC Treaty, Art. 173, fourth para. (now, after amendment, Art. 230 EC, fourth para.))

Summary

1. A declaration of annulment limited solely to the provision of a regulation concerning the extension of an anti-dumping duty would make the regulation extending the definitive anti-dumping duty to importers of similar products or parts of those products a dead letter. The remainder of the operative part of that regulation concerns only the implementation of that provision, particularly as regards the possibility of obtaining exemption from the extended duty, and cannot therefore be detached from it. Therefore, an action for annulment is not inadmissible in so far as it is aimed at the annulment of the regulation in its entirety.

( see para. 35 )

2. An economic operator is directly concerned, within the meaning of the fourth paragraph of Article 173 of the Treaty (now, after amendment, the fourth paragraph of Article 230 EC), by a regulation extending a definitive anti-dumping duty to imports of similar products or parts of those products where the customs authorities of Member States are obliged to levy the anti-dumping duty extended by that regulation to imports of those products, having no discretion in the matter.

As for the condition of being individually concerned, in so far as the effect of a regulation extending an anti-dumping duty is only to enlarge the scope of the initial regulation to include imports of similar products or parts of those products, that regulation therefore has the same legal effects on undertakings subject to the duty thus extended as a regulation establishing a definitive duty has on undertakings subject to such a duty. It follows that the mere fact that an economic operator must pay a duty by reason of a regulation extending an anti-dumping duty does not, as regards the admissibility of its action for annulment, place it in a different legal position from that of importers subject to a regulation establishing a definitive anti-dumping duty.

( see paras 49-53 )

3. An intermediary importer who, although invited to participate in an investigation into the circumvention of anti-dumping measures, does not take part in that investigation until after the expiry of the time-limit laid down by the regulation opening the investigation, cannot rely on the principles in the judgment in Case T-161/94 Sinochem Heilongjiang v Council [1996] ECR II-695 in order to maintain that, by reason of its participation in the investigation, it is individually concerned by the extension regulation adopted by the Council following the investigation procedure.

( see paras 57-62 )

4. Like the provisions of a regulation extending an anti-dumping duty to imports of certain parts of the products concerned and establishing a system of exemption from the extended duty, the exemption regulation concerns an intermediary importer of those products not by reason of certain attributes which are peculiar to it or by reason of circumstances which differentiate it from any other person, but by reason only of its objective capacity as an intermediary importer, in the same way as any other operator finding itself, currently or potentially, in an identical situation. In relation to that intermediary importer, therefore, such a regulation constitutes a measure of general scope and not a decision within the meaning of the fourth paragraph of Article 173 of the Treaty (now, after amendment, the fourth paragraph of Article 230 EC).

( see paras 67, 69, 78 )