EU anti dumping law is designed to prevent non-EU companies from “dumping” goods into the single market at any price that is less than fair.

In such a case, EU is free to react by establishing an anti-dumping duty that is a protectionist tariff that EU imposes on foreign imports that it believes are priced below fair market value.

Anti-dumping measures counter dumping practices occurring when non-EU manufacturers sell their goods in the EU below the normal value (usually the sales price) on their domestic market.

A non-EU company is ‘dumping’ if it exports a product to the EU at a price lower than the product’s normal value. The normal value is either the product’s price as sold on the home market of the non-EU company, or a price based on the cost of production and profit.

The European Commission is responsible for investigating dumping claims and imposing measures. The Commission opens an investigation as soon as it has sufficient evidence that imports into the EU are made at dumped prices and are causing injury to European industry.

Typically, such evidence is communicated to the Commission by the European producers exposed to the unfair competition of dumped imports (or jointly by trade unions and European industry) by means of an official complaint.