Keywords
Summary

Keywords

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1. Competition ° Agreements, decisions and concerted practices ° Agreements betweeen undertakings ° Anti-competitive object or effect ° Effect on trade between Member States ° Criteria ° Assessed overall and not at the level of each participant

(EEC Treaty, Art. 85(1))

2. Competition ° Community rules ° Infringements ° Intentional commission ° Meaning

(Council Regulation No 17, Art. 15)

3. Community law ° Principles ° Equal treatment ° Discrimination ° Meaning

4. Competition ° Fines ° Amount ° Commission' s margin of discretion

(Council Regulation No 17, Art. 15)

5. Acts of the institutions ° Statement of reasons ° Obligation ° Scope ° Decision applying the competition rules

(EEC Treaty, Art. 190)

Summary

1. In order to establish whether an undertaking can be found to have infringed Article 85(1) of the Treaty, the only relevant questions are whether it participated with other undertakings in an agreement having the object or effect of restricting competition and whether that agreement was liable to affect trade between Member States. The question whether the individual participation of the undertaking concerned in that agreement could, notwithstanding its limited scale, restrict competition or affect trade between Member States is entirely irrelevant.

Moreover, that provision does not require the restrictions of competition ascertained actually to have appreciably affected trade between Member States but merely requires that it be established that the agreement was capable of having that effect.

2. It is not necessary for an undertaking to have been aware that it was infringing the competition rules laid down in the Treaty for an infringement to be regarded as having been committed intentionally; it is sufficient that it could not have been unaware that the object of its conduct was the restriction of competition.

3. For there to be an infringement of the principle of equal treatment, comparable situations must have been treated differently.

4. The fines which the Commission imposes in the event of an infringement of Article 85 et seq. of the Treaty constitute an instrument of the Commission' s competition policy. The Commission must therefore be allowed a margin of discretion when fixing their amount, in order that it may channel the conduct of undertakings towards observance of the competition rules.

5. The purpose of the obligation under Article 190 of the Treaty to state the reasons on which a decision adversely affecting a person is based, is to enable the Community judicature to exercise its power of review as to the legality of those decisions and to provide the parties concerned with the necessary information so that they may establish whether or not those decisions are well founded. Consequently, the Commission is required to mention the matters of fact and of law and the considerations which led it to adopt a decision applying the competition rules.