EU to step up foreign subsidy probes, antitrust chief says

The EU is to pursue more subsidy investigations against foreign companies investing in the bloc as it steps up efforts to combat what it sees as unfair competition, its antitrust chief has said, Report informs referring to Financial Times.

Although not specifically aimed at China, the EU’s foreign subsidies regulation, which came into force in 2023, has been used to target many Chinese companies amid growing concern that oversupply by the world’s largest manufacturer is jeopardising European industry. Asked whether there would be more such probes under the regulation, Teresa Ribera, EU executive vice-president for a clean, just and competitive transition, said: “Of course.”

Ribera said she expected sectors in which there was increasing foreign interest in investing to come under scrutiny. “There is a broad spectrum of those sectors where there is interest to invest in Europe — basic industries [and] modern industries; chemicals, pharma, cars and batteries,” she told the Financial Times.

The foreign subsidy regulation (FSR) allows Brussels to block companies subsidised by foreign governments from public procurement, mergers and acquisitions and even selling goods and services into the single market.

The EU has used it to investigate Chinese companies bidding for public tenders in Europe ranging from electric-vehicle maker BYD and a state-owned train maker to a solar panel company and its government-owned partner. The EU has also launched “ex officio” investigations under the FSR into a Chinese security scanner maker and Chinese wind turbine sales.