Leather handbag company Medici Grimm have failed to secure damages from the EU Council of Ministers in a marathon dispute over anti-dumping duties on Chinese imports. The European Court of Justice (ECJ) dismissed a claim that it be paid e168,315 in damages (or another sum if the judges had decided otherwise), for having been wrongly forced to pay more than DM1.6 million in anti-dumping duties on imported handbags made by China’s Lucci Creation Ltd.
The tariff had been paid between 1997-8, following the imposition of 38% anti-dumping duties on imports of Chinese leather handbags into the EU. The court and later the Council of Ministers later agreed they had been wrongly levied on Medici Grimm and the company was refunded by German customs.
However, the importer launched another case claiming the council misused its powers in imposing the duties and the court has now rejected this latest claim. It ruled that ministers had not erred ‘in a sufficiently serious manner to give rise to the non-contractual liability’, leaving Medici Grimm with a bill for their own and the council’s ECJ legal costs.
