On 17 October, the European Biodiesel Board (EBB) secured a favourable judgement from the European Court of Justice (ECJ), which rejected the appeals of two Indonesian exporters against a previous judgement of the European General Court of December 2022, which rejected all requests to annul the countervailing duty imposed in November 2019 on biodiesel imports into Indonesia. The General Court’s 2022 judgement was fully upheld, ending four years of litigation.
Xavier Noyon, Secretary General of the European Biodiesel Agency (EBA), said: this ruling marks a new milestone in the EBA’s long and relentless fight against unfair biodiesel imports and the restoration of a level playing field in the European Union; it comes at an opportune time as the countervailing duty will soon expire unless the expiry review investigation concludes that it is necessary to extend the countervailing duty for a further five years.
In this case, the European Commission found that the export duties imposed by the Government of Indonesia were countervailing as defined in the basic countervailing regulation.