The European Union is increasingly using anti-dumping procedures to better regulate international trade. At a time when we are talking about the progressive rise of a globalization among friends, it is necessary to clarify all the economic mechanisms that lead to the adoption of an anti-dumping duty. This paper shows that the misperception of the quality of an imported good is an effective explanation of anti-dumping duties. In particular, we show that questioning the quality of goods imported from a country significantly increases the probability of initiating anti-dumping investigations against that country. The evidence is both theoretical and empirical and focuses on trade relations between the European Union and China.