Keywords
Summary

Keywords

Court of Justice – Court of First Instance – Unlimited jurisdiction – Exercise in the context of an action for annulment – Absence of an autonomous remedy with unlimited jurisdiction

(Arts 229 EC, 230, fifth para., EC and 231 EC; Council Regulation No 17, Art. 17)

Summary

The Treaty does not recognise the ‘action under the Court’s unlimited jurisdiction’ as an autonomous remedy. Article 229 EC confines itself to providing that regulations adopted pursuant to the provisions of the Treaty may give the Community judicature unlimited jurisdiction with regard to the penalties provided for in those regulations.

On the basis of Article 229 EC, a number of regulations have given the Community judicature unlimited jurisdiction with regard to penalties. In particular, Article 17 of Regulation No 17 provides that ‘[t]he Court of Justice shall have unlimited jurisdiction within the meaning of Article [229 EC] to review decisions whereby the Commission has fixed a fine or periodic penalty payment’. The Court of First Instance has power to assess, in the context of the unlimited jurisdiction accorded to it by Article 229 EC and Article 17 of Regulation No 17, the appropriateness of the amounts of fines. In the context of its unlimited jurisdiction, the powers of the Community judicature are not limited to declaring the contested decision void, as provided in Article 231 EC, but allow it to vary the penalty imposed by that decision.

However, that unlimited jurisdiction can be exercised by the Community judicature only in the context of the review of acts of the Community institutions, more particularly in actions for annulment. The sole effect of Article 229 EC is to enlarge the extent of the powers the Community judicature has in the context of the action referred to in Article 230 EC. Consequently, an action in which the Community judicature is asked to exercise its unlimited jurisdiction with respect to a decision imposing a penalty necessarily comprises or includes a request for the annulment, in whole or in part, of that decision. Such an action must therefore be brought within the time-limit laid down by the fifth paragraph of Article 230 EC.

(see paras 22-25)