Opinion of Mr Advocate General Darmon

Mr President,

Members of the Court,

1. This application concerns the reimbursement of antidumping duties to which an importer in the Community is entitled. Where an importer can show that

2. The limited company Continentale Produkten Gesellschaft (hereinafter referred to as Continentale Produkten), which imports cotton yarns originating in Turkey, was obliged to pay, in respect of the customs value of the goods which it had imported between 15 April and 16 July 1982 the antidumping duty of 12% imposed by Council Regulation No 789/82 of 2 April 1982 for products of that kind which were released for consumption after 1 January 1982.

The powers of the Commission

3. According to Article 15 of the 1979 regulation, the Member State in the territory of which the products were entered for consumption,

4. The first question which therefore arises is whether the Commission was empowered under Article 16 of the 1984 Regulation to decide on an application for a refund submitted in accordance with Article 15 of the 1979 Regulation. I, unlike the applicant, consider that that question must be answered in the affirmative.

The legality of the contested decision

5. According to the applicant, the contested decision is illegal first because of the illegality of Council Regulation No 789/82 itself and, secondly, because of the Commission's refusal to take into consideration the individual normal values of its suppliers.

6. It therefore remains to examine the second head of the same submission by which the applicant complains that the Commission refused to take into account individual normal values in deciding on its application for a refund.

7. In this case, Continentale Produkten is disputing the adjustment of the constructed normal value to meet its individual case.

1 Translated from the French.

2 Article 15 of Council Regulation No 3017/79 of 20 December 1979 on protection against dumped or subsidized imports from countries not members of the European Community and Article 16 of Council Regulation No 2176/84 of 23 July 1984 which has applied since 1 August 1984.

3 Cited in the Council Decision of 10 December 1979 concerning the conclusion of the Multilateral Agreements resulting from the 1973 to 1979 Trade Negotiations (Official Journal 1980, L 71, at p. 95).