Arcelor loses challenge to anti-pollution rules

LUXEMBOURG: Arcelormittal, the world’s biggest steelmaker, lost a European Union court challenge to air-pollution rules, setting back an attempt to win compensation for what it said was unfair treatment.

The EU’s General Court in Luxembourg on Tuesday rejected a challenge to the region’s climate-change policy, which ArcelorMittal had said discriminates against steelmakers by excluding other industries such as aluminum and chemical makers that may have even higher emissions. “The applicant has failed to demonstrate that, in adopting the contested directive,” the EU “acted unlawfully or committed a sufficiently serious breach of a rule of law”, a three-judge panel of the court ruled. “Consequently, the application for damages must be rejected.”

ArcelorMittal, which cut output as much as 50% last year and fired workers, sought to partially annul the EU’s 2003 legislation which caps emissions of carbon dioxide from factories and power plants. It said the rules are unfair because they exclude other industries and restrict freedom to transfer production from less efficient plants to more efficient ones.