Netherlands hit with €659m EU fine for "evading anti-dumping duties" on solar panels
Our team are used to covering positive stories around new solar projects and the environmental and economic benefits they can bring, but today’s story is a little different. Today we bring news of an enormous fine from the EU towards the Netherlands for allegedly evading duties they should have paid on solar imports. When we say enormous, we mean 659 MILLION EUROS enormous! The Netherlands are challenging the ruling, saying it is not justified. The charges relate to anti-dumping and countervailing duties that were allegedly avoided between May 2015 and March 2017, in relation to solar imports from China, Malaysia and Taiwan. Such duties were introduced in 2013 as part of EU regulation on the growing solar industry. The EU ruling suggests that the Netherlands failed to impose €824 million worth of anti-dumping and countervailing duties on imports across the aforementioned 22 month period. They believe an incorrect interpretation of the rules imposed by the Europe...