Judgment of the General Court Seventh Chamber, Extended Composition, 19 March 2025, LG Belgium v Commission, T-356/22

• Date: 19 March 2025
• Year: 2025

37

XI. COMMON COMMERC IAL POLICY: ANTI-DUMPING

Judgment of the General Cour t (Seventh Chamber, Extended Compositi on), 19 March 2025,

LG Belgium v Commission, T-356/22

Link to the judgment as published in extract form

Du mp ing – Imp o rt o f sup e rab so rbe nt po ly me rs ori g ina tin g in the Republic of Korea – R egulation ( EU)

2022/547 – Definitive anti-dumping duty – Article 3(2), (3), (5), (6) and (7) of Regulation (EU) 2016/1036 –

Article 9(4) of Regulatio n 2016/1036 – Determination of injury – Examination of the effect o f the i mports

on prices for like products sold on the EU market – Analysis of price undercutting – App lic at ion o f th e

produ ct con trol number metho d – Causal link – Attri bution and non-attribution analysis – Othe r kno wn

facto rs – Amount of anti-dumping duty – Rig hts of the defence – Principle of sound administration

In dismissing the action brought by LG Chem, Ltd. against Commission Implementing Regulation

2022/547 impo sing a d efinitive anti-dumping duty on imports of superabsorbent polymers (‘SAP’)

originat ing in t he Repub lic of Kor ea, 49 the General Court brings some clarification as to which factors

are to be taken into account in order to determine the injury margin and anti-dumping duty rate.

LG Chem is a Ko rean exporting producer of SAP, which exports them, inter alia, to the European

Union. After the European Superabsorbent Polymer Coalition lodged a complaint with the European

Commission, the latter adopted the contested regulation, introducing an anti-dumping du ty of 13.4%

on imports into the European Union of SAP manufactured by LG Chem. That company brought an

action for annulment of that regulation.

Findings of the Court

In support of its action, LG Chem claimed, inter alia, that the methodology used by the Commission in

the contested regulation had infringed Article 9(4) of t he basic regulation. 50

The Court begins by observing that, under that provision, which lays down the ‘lesser duty rule’, the

amount of the anti-dumping duty must be lower than the margin of dumping established if that lesser

duty is adequate to remove the injury caused to the Union industry.

In the present case, the Commission applied Article 7(2c) of the basic regulation and calculated the

injury margin by comparing the price of the dumped imports with a target sales price of the Union

industry. That price represents the price the Union industry could reasonably expect to charge in the

EU mark et in the absence of the du mped import s.

In that regard, the Court notes that the use of that method came within the Commission’s margin of

discretion. The use of a target price instead of the actual sales price of the Union industry in order to

determine the injury margin makes it possible to take into account the downward pressure exerted

by the dumped imports on the sales prices of the Union indust ry.

That said, it is also apparent from the case-law that, in order to ensure that the amount of the anti-

dumping duty imposed in accordance with Article 9(4) of t he basic regulation does not ex ceed that

which is necessary to counter the injurious effects of the dumped imports, that amount should not

take into account injurious effects caused by factors other than those imports.

On that point, LG Chem submitted that the Commission failed to take due account of the injurious

effects c aused by fac tors other than Korean imports, namely, on the one hand, the SAP price formula

and the impact of the investments of the Union industry and, on the other, imports from Türkiye and

Japan.

49 Commission Implementing Regulation (EU) 2022/547 of 5 April 2022 imposing a defin itive an ti-dumping duty on impor ts of s upe rabsor bent

polymer s origin ating in the R epublic of Kore a (OJ 2022 L 107, p. 27; ‘the contested regulation’ ).

50 Regulation (EU) 2016/1036 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 8 June 20 16 on pr otection again st dumped imports f rom

countries not members of the European Union (OJ 2016 L 176, p. 21; ‘th e basic reg ulation ’).