Bricmate AB v Tullverket.
Date: 2015-09-10
39. It must be recalled that the Statute of the Court of Justice of the European Union and the Rules of Procedure of the Court of Justice make no provision for the parties to submit observations in response to the Advocate General’s Opinion (see judgment in Vnuk , C‑162/13, EU:C:2014:2146, paragraph 30 and the case-law cited).
40. Pursuant to the second paragraph of Article 252 TFEU, it is the duty of the Advocate General, acting with complete impartiality and independence, to make, in open court, reasoned submissions on cases which, in accordance with the Statute of the Court of Justice, require his involvement. The Court is not bound either by the Advocate General’s Opinion or by the reasoning on which it is based (see judgment in Commission  v Parker Hannifin Manufacturing and Parker-Hannifin , C‑434/13 P, EU:C:2014:2456, paragraph 29 and the case-law cited).
41. That said, the Court may, at any time, after hearing the Advocate General, order the reopening of the oral part of the procedure, under Article 83 of its Rules of Procedure, in particular if it considers that it lacks sufficient information or where the case must be decided on the basis of an argument which has not been debated between the parties or the interested persons referred to in Article 23 of the Statute of the Court of Justice (judgment in Nordzucker , C‑148/14, EU:C:2015:287, paragraph 24).
46. It should be recalled that it is settled case-law that the determination of the existence of injury caused to the Union industry requires an appraisal of complex economic situations and the judicial review of such an appraisal must therefore be limited to verifying whether relevant procedural rules have been complied with, whether the facts relied on have been accurately stated, and whether there has been a manifest error in the appraisal of those facts or a misuse of powers. That is particularly the case as regards the determination of the factors injuring the Union industry in an anti-dumping investigation (see judgments in Ikea Wholesale , C‑351/04, EU:C:2007:547, paragraph 41; Simon, Evers & Co. , C‑21/13, EU:C:2014:2154, paragraph 29; Valimar , C‑374/12, EU:C:2014:2231, paragraph 51; and TMK Europe , C‑143/14, EU:C:2015:236, paragraph 34).
52. However, it should be noted that the objective examination regarding the determination of injury caused to the Union industry, provided for in Article 3(2) of the basic regulation, must relate, first, to the volume of the dumped imports and the effect of the dumped imports on prices in the Union market for like products, and, secondly, to the consequent impact of those imports on the Union industry.
53. Thus, as regards the determination of that volume or those prices, Article 3(3) of the basic regulation sets out the factors to be taken into account in that examination, while specifying that one or more of those factors cannot in themselves give decisive guidance (see judgment in Neotype Techmashexport v Commission and Council , C‑305/86 and C‑160/87, EU:C:1990:295, paragraph 50).
54. The same is true with respect to the impact of the dumped imports on the Union industry. It follows from Article 3(5) of the basic regulation that the EU institutions have the task of evaluating all relevant economic factors and indices which have a bearing on the state of that industry, and one or more of those factors does not necessarily give decisive guidance. That provision thus gives those institutions discretion in the examination and evaluation of the various items of evidence (see, to that effect, judgment in Ikea Wholesale , C‑351/04, EU:C:2007:547, paragraph 61).
55. Finally, with respect to the causal link, under Article 3(6) of the basic regulation the EU institutions must demonstrate that the volume and/or price levels identified pursuant to Article 3(3) are responsible for an impact on the Union industry as provided for in Article 3(5) and that that impact exists to a degree which enables it to be classified as material.
64. In those circumstances, it must be held that the corrected figures do not call into question the overall conclusion reached, following an examination of all the economic indicators, by the EU institutions, with the result that the EU institutions were correct in establishing the existence of injury to the Union industry and the causal link between the imports and the injury.
69. However, this failure to examine the data relating to the average prices and volumes of imports from China is not such as to invalidate the conclusions reached by the EU institutions since, as has already been pointed out in paragraph 55 et seq. of the present judgment, on the basis of the corrected figures the trends of the corrected indicators for determination of the injury to the Union industry and of the causal link between the imports and the injury remain overall the same. The EU institutions were thus entitled to conclude that there was injury to the Union industry and a causal link between the imports and that injury.