Keywords
Summary

Keywords

1. Community law - Principles - Fundamental rights - Guaranteed by the Community judicature - European Convention on Human Rights taken into account

(Treaty on European Union, Paragraph 2 of Art. F (now Article 6(2) EU)

2. Competition - Administrative proceedings - Request for information - Rights of the defence - Absolute right of silence - None - Right to refuse to provide answers that imply admission of an infringement - Questions asking an undertaking to describe the purpose of certain meetings and the decisions adopted during them - Breach of the rights of the defence

(EC Treaty, Art. 89 (now, after amendment, Art. 85 EC), Council Regulation No 17, Art. 11(5))

Summary

1. The Court of Justice and the Court of First Instance have no jurisdiction to assess the legality of an investigation under competition law by reference to the provisions of the European Convention on Human Rights because the convention is not as such part of Community law. However, fundamental rights form an integral part of the general principles of law whose observance is ensured by the Community judicature. For this purpose, the Court of Justice and the Court of First Instance draw inspiration from the constitutional traditions common to the Member States and from the guidelines supplied by international treaties for the protection of human rights on which the Member States have collaborated and to which they are signatories. The European Convention on Human Rights has special significance in this respect. Furthermore, paragraph 2 of Article F of the Treaty on European Union (now Article 6(2) EU) provides that the Union shall respect fundamental rights, as guaranteed by the [European Convention on Human Rights] and as they result from the constitutional traditions common to the Member States, as general principles of Community law.

( see paras 59-60 )

2. An undertaking in receipt of a request for information pursuant to Article 11(5) of Regulation No 17 can be recognised as having a right of silence only to the extent that it would be compelled to provide answers which might involve an admission on its part of the existence of an infringement which it is incumbent upon the Commission to prove. To acknowledge the existence of an absolute right of silence would go beyond what is necessary in order to preserve the rights of defence of undertakings and would constitute an unjustified hindrance to the Commission's performance of its duty under Article 89 of the Treaty (now, after amendment, Article 85 EC) to ensure that the rules on competition within the common market are observed.

Moreover, there is nothing to prevent the addressee of such questions or requests from showing, whether later during the administrative procedure or in proceedings before the Community courts, when exercising his rights of defence, that the facts set out in his replies or the documents produced by him have a different meaning from that ascribed to them by the Commission.

Questions whereby the Commission calls upon an undertaking to describe the purpose of meetings which it attended and the decisions adopted during them, even though it is clear that the Commission suspects that the purpose of the meetings was to arrive at agreements, in respect of selling prices, of a nature such as to prevent or restrict competition, are such that they may compel the undertaking to admit its participation in an unlawful agreement contrary to the Community rules on competition and thus breach the rights of the defence.

( see paras 66-67, 71, 73, 78 )