Keywords
Summary

Keywords

ECSC — Agreements, decisions and concerted practices — Prohibited — Decision imposing a fine on a company which was not the addressee of the statement of objections following a procedure conducted exclusively against one of its subsidiaries — Infringement of the rights of the defence — Annulment — ( ECSC Treaty, Arts 36 and 65(1) and (5))

Summary

The principle of the rights of the defence, applicable in the context of an administrative procedure, requires, in particular, the inclusion in the statement of objections addressed by the Commission to an undertaking on which it intends to impose a penalty for infringement of competition rules of the essential factors taken into consideration against that undertaking, such as the facts alleged, the classification of those facts and the evidence on which the Commission relies, so that the undertaking may submit its arguments effectively during the administrative procedure brought against it.

Given its importance, the statement of objections must specify unequivocally the legal person on whom fines may be imposed and be addressed to that person.

A decision imposing a fine on a company must therefore be annulled for infringement of the rights of the defence where it is established that the statement of objections was addressed not to the company, but to one of its subsidiaries, that the statement of objections did not state that a fine might be imposed on the company, that the company was denied access to the file on the ground that it was not the addressee of that statement and that ambiguity persisted up to the end of the procedure as to the legal person on whom the fines would be imposed, despite the fact that that company was aware of the statement of objections and of the procedure which had been initiated against that subsidiary.

see paras 19-23