(Reuters) -The European Union is probing whether China provided unfair subsidies for a BYD electric car plant in Hungary, the Financial Times reported on Thursday, citing people familiar with the matter.
The European Commission is in the preliminary stages of a foreign subsidy probe into the BYD plant, and if Brussels finds that the Chinese company has benefited from unfair state aid, it could force it to sell some assets, reduce capacity, repay the subsidy and potentially pay a fine for non-compliance, the report added.
Hungary’s Prime Minister Viktor Orban has emerged as a vocal critic of the EU, especially since Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.
Hungary’s Europe Minister, Janos Boka, told the FT that Budapest had not been informed about the probe.
“It is not surprising – and it is generally known that any investment that takes place in Hungary appears on the Commission’s radar very quickly, and the Commission follows with redoubled attention every state aid decision that takes place in Hungary,” the FT quoted Boka.
The European Commission and BYD did not immediately respond to Reuters’ requests for comments.
(Reporting by Surbhi Misra in Bengaluru; Editing by Varun H K and Eileen Soreng)
