Keywords
Summary

Keywords

1. Competition - Administrative procedure - Examination of complaints - Obligation for the Commission to adopt a decision on the existence of an infringement - None - Account taken of Community interest attached to the investigation of a case - Commission's discretion

(Council Regulation No 17, Art. 3)

2. Competition - Administrative procedure - Examination of complaints - Account taken of Community interest attached to the investigation of a case - Criteria of assessment

(Council Regulation No 17, Art. 3)

3. Actions for annulment - Contested act - Assessment of legality on the basis of information available at the time when the act was adopted - Retrospective considerations - No effect

(EC Treaty, Art. 173 (now Art. 230 EC))

Summary

1. Although a complainant is entitled to have any uncertainty as to the outcome of his complaint dispelled by means of a Commission decision, which may be the subject-matter of an application for judicial review, Article 3 of Regulation No 17 does not give him the right to insist that the Commission take a final decision as to the existence or non-existence of the alleged infringement and does not oblige the Commission to continue the proceedings, whatever the circumstances, right up to the stage of a final decision.

The existence of the discretion which the Commission enjoys to give differing degrees of priority to the complaints brought before it does not depend on the more or less advanced stage of the investigation of a case. That element forms part of the circumstances of the case which the Commission is required to take into consideration when exercising its discretion.

( see paras 35-37 )

2. The Commission, in the exercise of its discretion, must take into consideration all the relevant matters of law and of fact in order to decide what action to take in response to a complaint. More particularly, it must consider attentively all the matters of fact and of law which the complainant brings to its attention. However, in view of the fact that the assessment of the Community interest raised by a complaint depends on the circumstances of each case, the number of criteria of assessment to which the Commission may refer should not be limited nor, conversely, should it be required to have recourse exclusively to certain criteria.

( see paras 45-46 )

3. In the context of an application for annulment under Article 173 of the Treaty (now Article 230 EC) the legality of a Community measure must be assessed on the basis of the facts and the law as they stood at the time when the measure was adopted and cannot depend on retrospective considerations of its efficacy.

( see para. 87 )