Minimum price undertaking — a price floor instead of a duty

Short answer. A minimum price undertaking is an offer by a manufacturer to sell its cars in the European Union at prices not below an agreed floor. If the European Commission accepts it, the covered sales can go ahead without the countervailing duty. It is an alternative way to remove the harm the duty was meant to remove — not a discount, and not a price cap.

This page describes the mechanism only. Which manufacturers, if any, have an accepted undertaking, and what it covers, are time-dependent facts. They are not stated in this text; see the section on where to check.

What a price undertaking is

In an anti-subsidy case, the EU can protect its producers either by charging a duty or by accepting a commitment from the exporter. The commitment is the undertaking. The exporter promises to sell the product at prices that remove the injurious effect of the subsidy on Union producers. The legal basis is the EU’s basic anti-subsidy regulation, published on EUR-Lex, which has a dedicated article on undertakings. Read the current consolidated text there rather than a summary, including this one.

The word “minimum” matters. The floor is a lower limit on the price the first independent customer in the Union pays. It says nothing about how high the price can go.

How it relates to the countervailing duty

The countervailing duty and the undertaking address the same problem by different means. The duty adds a cost at the border, paid by the importer to customs. The undertaking works on the selling price instead: the money that would have gone to the customs authority stays in the sale, because the car cannot be sold below the floor.

Because of that, an undertaking is not a way for the manufacturer to avoid the measure. To be accepted it has to be assessed as removing the harm to the Union industry, and it has to be something the Commission can monitor. If the commitments are broken or withdrawn, the duty can be applied again.

Who can offer it and who accepts it

The offer comes from the exporting producer. The decision belongs to the European Commission, which examines the offer within the same anti-subsidy proceeding and, if it accepts, does so in a formal legal act published in the Official Journal. Statements by governments, trade bodies or the press that talks are under way, or that a deal is close, are not an acceptance. Only the published act is.

An undertaking is also not automatic for a whole country. It is assessed for the producer that offers it, and the Commission looks at whether it can be checked in practice — for instance, whether the price of each model sold can be traced and whether the commitment can be circumvented.

What it could mean for a buyer — and what it does not change

For a buyer, the practical effect would be on the lower bound of what a covered model can cost at the first sale in the Union. A price floor does not set the price you pay. Equipment, the importer’s margin, local taxes, registration costs and dealer promotions still differ by market, so the only reliable answer to “what does this car cost here” remains a local price list with a date on it — which is what the market pages in this registry show.

It also does not change what the car is. Type-approval, safety and equipment rules apply regardless of the customs measure; see WVTA. And it does not change who is responsible for the sale: an official importer is the party that normally deals with customs and the Commission’s conditions for the cars it brings in. A buyer using parallel import should ask the seller in writing how the car was imported and under which customs treatment. This page cannot answer that for any individual purchase.

Where to check the current status

• The Commission’s trade defence pages: policy.trade.ec.europa.eu, which link to the register of investigations, where the case on battery electric vehicles from China and any later acts are listed.
• The Official Journal on EUR-Lex: the definitive duty regulation and any amending or implementing acts that follow it.
• The customs status shown on each model page in this registry, which reflects the sources recorded for that model.

Related: countervailing duty · official importer · parallel import · WVTA

Sources: Basic regulation on protection against subsidised imports; Commission Implementing Regulation imposing the definitive duty; European Commission, trade defence. The mechanism was described from the regulation’s structure; the current status of any undertaking could not be confirmed from an official source on 13 November 2026 and is deliberately not stated. This page is general information, not advice on any person’s customs or tax liability.