By Foo Yun Chee
BRUSSELS (Reuters) -A Chinese security equipment company was raided by the European Commission at its Dutch and Polish offices on Tuesday as EU regulators intensified their crackdown against companies that may have received distortive foreign subsidies.
The EU foreign subsidies regulation has allowed the EU executive since July 2023 to assess whether subsidies allow companies to submit overly advantageous offers in procurement tenders to edge out EU rivals.
It has launched four investigations since then, targeting Chinese companies.
“The Commission has indications that the inspected company may have received foreign subsidies that could distort the internal market pursuant to the Foreign Subsidies Regulation,” the Commission said in a statement.
It did not name the company nor the country where it was located. It can subsequently open an investigation if it finds sufficient evidence of distortive subsidies.
The China Chamber of Commerce to the EU said it was told that the offices of a Chinese company had been raided in Poland and the Netherlands, with regulators seizing IT equipment and employees’ mobile phones and demanding access to data.
“The EU’s actions send a detrimental message not only to Chinese enterprises but to all non-EU companies conducting business in the bloc,” it said in a statement.
“The sudden unannounced inspection on April 23 undermines the business environment for foreign companies within the EU in the disguise of foreign subsidies.”
(Reporting by Foo Yun Chee; Editing by Alison Williams and Alex Richardson)
