In a ruling handed down on Wednesday 18 October (Case T-402/20), the General Court of the European Union has annulled the additional customs duties imposed from May 2020 to the end of 2021 on metal mechanical storm lighters from the United States.
In this case, the American lighter manufacturer Zippo is challenging the additional customs duties that the European Union had imposed on certain lighters in response to the Trump Administration’s imposition in January 2020 of customs duties on imports of certain aluminium and steel products from the EU (see EUROPE 12462/26). It believes that this decision violated its right to be heard.
In its ruling, the General Court upheld Zippo’s appeal and annulled the increase in customs duties on its lighters. Since the Commission knew, before adopting them, that the additional customs duties largely concerned this company’s lighters, it should have heard the company before imposing them. According to the General Court, it had all the time it needed to do so. The General Court also considers that it cannot be ruled out that the Commission would have decided otherwise if it had heard Zippo beforehand.
The European judge emphasised that the increase in customs duties in question was effected by means of an act of general application. Such an act may only be challenged before the courts of the Union if the person or undertaking challenging it is individually and directly concerned by it. According to the General Court, this is indeed the case with Zippo, which is the only company producing and exporting the type of lighters in question from the United States to the EU.
See the General Court’s judgment: https://aeur.eu/f/94s (Original version in French by Mathieu Bion)