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1. An investigation shall be initiated by the Commission at the request of a Member State, of any natural or legal person that is acting on behalf of the Union industry, or of any association not having legal personality that is acting on behalf of the Union industry, or on the Commission's own initiative, where there is sufficient prima facie evidence of serious injury or the threat of serious injury to the Union industry, as determined on the basis of factors referred to in Article 6(5).

2. Requests for the initiation of an investigation may also be submitted jointly by the Union industry, or by any natural or legal person that is acting on behalf of the Union industry or any association not having legal personality that is acting on behalf of the Union industry, and trade unions. In addition, requests for the initiation of an investigation may be supported by trade unions. This does not affect the right of the Union industry to withdraw the request.

3. Requests for the initiation of an investigation shall contain the following information:

(a) the rate and amount of the increase in imports of the product concerned, in absolute and relative terms;

(b) the share of the domestic market taken by the increased imports, and the changes regarding the Union industry with respect to the level of sales, production, productivity, capacity utilisation, profits and losses, and employment.

4. The scope of the product that is subject to the investigation may cover one or several tariff lines or one or several subsegments of one or several tariff lines, depending on the specific market circumstances, or may follow any product segmentation commonly applied in the Union industry.

5. An investigation may also be initiated where there is a surge of imports concentrated in one or several Member States, provided that there is sufficient prima facie evidence of serious injury or the threat of serious injury to the Union industry, as determined on the basis of factors referred to in Article 6(5).

6. The Commission shall provide a copy of the request to initiate an investigation to the Member States before it initiates the investigation. Where the Commission intends to initiate an investigation on its own initiative pursuant to paragraph 1, it shall provide information to the Member States once it has determined the need to initiate that investigation.

7. Where it is apparent to the Commission that there is sufficient prima facie evidence to justify the initiation of an investigation, the Commission shall initiate the investigation and shall publish a notice on initiation of investigation (the ‘notice of initiation’) in the Official Journal of the European Union. The investigation shall be initiated within one month of the Commission receiving the request pursuant to paragraph 1.

8. The notice of initiation shall contain the following elements:

(a) a summary of the information received by the Commission and a request that all relevant information be communicated to the Commission;

(b) the period within which interested parties may make their views known in writing and submit information to the Commission, if such views and information are to be taken into account during the investigation;

(c) the period within which interested parties may apply to be heard by the Commission in accordance with Article 6(9).