According to the China People's Daily, the official government-controlled news service of mainland China, a group of five Chinese shoemakers have sued the European Union over the recently imposed 16.5% anti-dumping tariff on China manufactured footwear.

Several U.S. outdoor footwear companies were directly impacted by these “anti-dumping” tariffs, including Timberland, Wolverine World Wide and Deckers.

According to the group's lawyer, Pu Lingchen, five companies had filed the lawsuit, but would not reveal further details of the companies. The companies claim the European Union did not carry out its anti-dumping investigation properly.

According to the report, Pu said that the key issue is the “market economy status” of companies not sampled in the investigation. Nearly 160 shoemakers applied for market economy status during the investigation and were not recognized. These firms received no response and were not investigated by the European Union before the anti-dumping tariff was imposed on their products.

Pu told the CPD that the case before the European Commission would last for two years.