The World Trade Organisation (WTO) agreed on Thursday to establish a panel to examine an EU complaint over China’s rules on royalty rates for high-tech patents.
The European Commission has accused China of pressuring innovative European high-tech companies into lowering their fees by allowing its courts to set binding worldwide royalty rates.
The WTO said in a statement that its Dispute Settlement Body (DSB) had agreed during a meeting to create a panel to rule on the EU complaint, first filed in January 2025.
In the complaint, Brussels charged that Beijing’s practices were inconsistent with international trade rules, including a WTO agreement related to intellectual property rights.
The two sides failed to reach an agreement during consultations set up to resolve the spat, and the EU last month submitted an initial request for the DSB to set up an expert panel.
China blocked that first request, but under WTO rules, a second panel request is, in practice, automatically…
