Article 6 — Initiation of an investigation for sensitive products

1. Without prejudice to Article 5, the Commission shall initiate an investigation concerning sensitive products without delay, where there is sufficient prima facie evidence, for example obtained by means of the monitoring and market situation assessment referred to in Article 4(1) and (2), of serious injury or the threat of serious injury to the Union industry, including where it may be geographically concentrated in one or several Member States. 2. The Commission shall, as a matter of priority, examine whether prima facie evidence as referred to in paragraph 1 exists in cases where there is a surge of imports or a decrease in domestic prices concentrated in one or several Member States, or where there is a surge of imports or a decrease in the price of a product and the Union producers of like or directly competitive products are predominantly established in one or several Member States. 3. The Commission shall, in the absence of contrary indications, treat an increase in volume of more than 5 % compared to the three-year average, as a rule, of the imports under preferential terms of a given product from a country concerned as prima facie evidence of serious injury, or the threat of serious injury to the Union industry, if, at the same time, the average import price for those imports from a country concerned is at least 5 %, as a rule, below the relevant average domestic price of like or directly competitive products during the same period, based on available data. 4. The Commission shall, in the absence of contrary indications, treat a decrease of more than 5 % compared to the three-year average, as a rule, in the average import price of a given product from a country concerned imported into the Union on preferential terms as prima facie evidence of serious injury or the threat of serious injury to the Union industry, if at the same time the average import price for that product from a country concerned is at least 5 %, as a rule, below the relevant average domestic price of like or directly competitive products during the same period, based on available data. 5. The Commission shall not be limited to the quantitative thresholds set out in this Article when establishing prima facie evidence of serious injury. Clear indications of a deterioration in the economic situation of the industry, across the Union or at Member State level, including sustained decreases in domestic prices, may be sufficient to demonstrate prima facie evidence of serious injury and may warrant the initiation of an investigation.