20.2.2023
EN
Official Journal of the European Union
L 51/81
(15)
Still in October 2022, the company informed the Commission that the assembling of conventional bicycles had not started yet, allegedly due to a shortage of supply of bicycle parts.
However, Sangal assembled e-bikes instead.
Sangal also claimed that they would start the assembly of conventional bicycles by the current year 2022.
(16)
The Commission notes that pursuant to the exemption Regulation, one of the conditions to benefit from the exemption authorisation is that assemblers must use the bicycle parts purchased in exemption to assemble conventional bicycles.
Furthermore, hybrid assemblers (i.e. assemblers of both conventional bicycles and e-bikes) can also benefit from the use of the exemption authorisation.
However, parties assembling e-bikes exclusively cannot benefit from the exemption authorisation granted pursuant to the exemption Regulation.
These parties should operate under an ad-hoc end-use authorisation granted according to the customs legislation of the Union, provided that they meet the conditions to benefit from it.
(17)
In the light of the above, Sangal cannot be considered a hybrid assembler.
The Commission gave reasonable time to the company to restart the assembly of conventional bicycles and it failed to do so.
Therefore, the request of change in references as referred to in recitals (8) and (9) should be rejected.
(18)
Moreover, Sangal does not comply anymore with the requirements of the exemption authorisation granted under the exemption Regulation.
Therefore, the exemption authorisation for Sangal referred to in recital (8) should be withdrawn.
The request for change of name referred to in recital (9) therefore falls.
(19)
On 9 December 2022 a disclosure of the above findings on the basis of which it was intended to propose to adopt a Commission Implementing Decision rejecting the request of change in references and withdrawing the exemption authorisation was sent to Sangal.
(20)
Following disclosure, on 19 December 2022 Sangal confirmed that in the course of the last four years the assembling of conventional bicycles has never started.
The company invoked exceptional circumstances in the market, such as substantial increased demand for e-bikes, while at the same time there had been a significant increase in freight cost coupled with a very long lead time for the delivery of parts, while the company was still in the start-up phase and loss making.
(21)
The Commission noted, however, that the increased demand for e-bikes is not relevant in the present assessment.
Moreover, no evidence was submitted by Sangal in relation to the invoked exceptional circumstances, such as the long lead time for the delivery of parts.
On the contrary, the Commission noted that according to the report of the European 14(6) Database, the volume of bicycle parts purchased by Sangal increased significantly during the last four years and has even doubled in 2022.
(22)
Furthermore, Sangal submitted that it would be in the process of finalising a purchase order with a related company that, if confirmed, would lead to the assembling of around 4 000 conventional bicycles to be consigned in the course of 2023.
Therefore, Sangal asked the Commission to grant additional time to prove that the company can be considered as a hybrid assembler.
(23)
The Commission noted, that according to the actual assembling activities of Sangal, the company cannot be considered a hybrid assembler.
Moreover, the fact that Sangal would be negotiating an order to produce conventional bicycles in the future does not affect its current activity, which is the object of the present examination.
Indeed, if the future assembling activity of conventional bicycles is confirmed, it would have only a prospective effect on the performance of the company.
(24)
Moreover, the Commission noted that the present Implementing Decision does not preclude Sangal from lodging a new request for an exemption authorisation in the future, according to the conditions set out in Articles 4 and 5 of the exemption Regulation.
(25)
For the above, the findings of the examination of the request as referred to in recital (18) are confirmed and the request of Sangal dismissed,