Notice for the OJ

 

Action brought on 6 September 2002 by Ritek Corporation and Prodisc Technology Inc. against the Council of the European Union

    (Case T-274/02)

    Language of the case: English

An action against the Council of the European Union was brought before the Court of First Instance of the European Communities on 6 September 2002 by Ritek Corporation, Hsin Chu Industrial Park, Taiwan R.O.C. and Prodisc Technology Inc., Taipei Hsien, Taiwan R.O.C, represented by Dr Konstantinos Adamantopoulos, Barrister, with an address for service in Luxembourg.

The applicant claims that the Court should:

- declare, pursuant to Article 230 and 231 of the Treaty, that Council Regulation (EC) 1050/2002 of 13 June 2002 imposing a definitive anti-dumping duty and collecting definitively the provisional duty imposed on imports of recordable compact disks originating in Taiwan is null ad void;

- order that the costs of and occasioned by these proceedings be borne by the defendant.

Pleas in law and main arguments:

The applicants are producers of CD-Rs established in Taiwan and export CD-Rs to the Community. In February 2001, an anti-dumping complaint was lodged before the Commission by the Committee of European CD-R Manufacturers. Following this complaint, the Commission initiated an investigation regarding imports originating in Taiwan. Provisional anti-dumping measures were imposed by Commission Regulation 2479/01¹. These measures were made definitive by Council Regulation 1050/2002². The applicants contest the latter regulation with their present action.

The applicants allege infringement of Articles 2(10) and 2(11) of Regulation 384/96 on protection against dumped imports from countries not members of the European Community³. According to the applicants, the Council committed a manifest error in the assessment of the facts and of law by finding that the applicants engaged in "targeted dumping" practices and allowed use of the average-to-transaction methodology in the calculation of the dumping margin of the applicants.

According to the applicants, no exceptional treatment of certain transactions to certain customers, in certain regions or in certain time periods, i.e. no targeted dumping, took place during the investigation period. The applicants submit that export and domestic price patterns were almost identical and that the prices for CD-Rs declined worldwide. In these circumstances, there was, according to the applicants, no place for disguising the effects of dumping through targeted dumping.

The applicants furthermore claim that by using the average-to-transaction methodology which refers to constructed normal values, the Commission failed to address the purpose of targeted dumping, which is to conceal dumping by charging different export prices. According to the applicants, the Commission should refer to actual prices when investigating targeted dumping.

Secondly, the applicants allege infringement of Article 2 of Regulation 384/96. The applicant claims that the Council made a manifest error of assessment of the facts in calculating the dumping margin of the applicants by using the "zeroing technique". Using this technique, the transactions of the applicants that are made at a price higher then the average price, are brought down to a price equal to the average price. According to the applicants, the Commission did not apply the average-to-transaction methodology correctly as a result of using the "zeroing technique". The applicants submit that the objective of the average-to-transaction methodology is to ensure a fair comparison and not to yield higher dumping margins.

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¹ - Commission Regulation (EC) No 2479/2001 of 17 December 2001 imposing a provisional anti-dumping duty on imports of recordable compact disks originating in Taiwan (OJ L 334, p. 8).

² - Council Regulation (EC) No 1050/2002 of 13 June 2002 imposing a definitive anti-dumping duty and collecting definitively the provisional duty imposed on imports of recordable compact disks originating in Taiwan (OJ L 160, p. 2).

³ - Council Regulation (EC) No 384/96 of 22 December 1995 on protection against dumped imports from countries not members of the European Community (OJ 1996, L 56, p. 1)