General Court of the European Union

The action seeking annulment of the decision by the Commission to approve aid granted by Finland to the airline Finnair is dismissed in its entirety* The Commission was entitled to approve the recapitalisation of Finnair, carried out by its public and private owners on a pro rata basis in (...)

The General Court upholds the Commission’s decision prohibiting the proposed merger between thyssenkrupp and Tata Steel * Thyssenkrupp, a German industrial group, and Tata Steel, a company whose registered office is in India, are active, inter alia, in the manufacturing and supply of flat (...)

Abuse of dominance on the LTE chipsets market: the General Court annuls the Commission decision imposing on Qualcomm a fine of approximately €1 billion* The General Court observes that a number of procedural irregularities affected Qualcomm’s rights of defence and invalidate the Commission’s (...)

The General Court of the European Union confirms that the German aid for the rescue of Condor is compatible with EU law* The fact that Condor’s financial difficulties were caused by the Thomas Cook group being placed into liquidation did not preclude the approval of that aid by the Commission (...)

The General Court dismisses the action brought by Canon, which was fined € 28 million by the Commission for failure to comply with merger control rules in its acquisition of Toshiba Medical Systems Corporation* In 2016, Canon Inc (‘the applicant’), a Japanese multinational company specialising in (...)

The General Court upholds the Commission’s decision approving rescue aid of €36 660 000 granted by Romania to the airline TAROM* That aid is compatible with the internal market as it aims to prevent the social hardship that disruption of TAROM’s services might cause for the connectivity of (...)

The General Court annuls the decision of the Commission rejecting a complaint against PKP Cargo, a company controlled by the Polish State, concerning an alleged abuse of its dominant position on the market for rail freight transport services in Poland* The General Court examines for the first (...)

The General Court dismisses the action brought against a decision by the Commission to make binding on Gazprom commitments proposed by the latter in order to address competition concerns raised by the former in relation to the national markets for the upstream wholesale supply of gas in the (...)

The General Court annuls the Commission’s decision to reject a complaint lodged by a Polish wholesaler* The Commission failed to respect the Polish wholesaler’s procedural rights in the proceedings which led to the adoption of that decision Between 2011 and 2015, the European Commission took (...)

The General Court dismisses Scania’s action and maintains the fine of €880.52 million imposed by the Commission for Scania’s participation in a cartel between truck manufacturers* The General Court provides clarification on, first, the legality of a ‘hybrid’ procedure combining the settlement (...)

The General Court annuls in part the Commission decision imposing a fine of € 1.06 billion on Intel* The Commission’s analysis is incomplete and does not make it possible to establish to the requisite legal standard that the rebates at issue were capable of having, or likely to have, (...)

Greece is ordered to make a lump sum payment of €5 500 000 and periodic penalty payments of over €4 000 000 for every six months’ delay for failure to recover State aid granted to Larco* The Court first declared that Greece had failed to fulfil its obligations in a judgment delivered in 2017 (...)

The General Court awards Deutsche Telekom compensation in the amount of approximately € 1.8 million for the harm which it suffered as a result of the European Commission’s refusal to pay it default interest on the amount of the fine which it had unduly paid for an infringement of competition (...)

The General Court largely dismisses Google’s action against the decision of the Commission finding that Google abused its dominant position by favouring its own comparison shopping service over competing comparison shopping services* The General Court upholds the fine of €2.42 billion imposed on (...)

The General Court dismisses the actions of Polskie Linie Lotnicze ‘LOT’ against the Commission decisions authorising the mergers concerning the acquisition by easyJet and Lufthansa, respectively, of certain assets of the Air Berlin group* Faced with a persistent deterioration of its financial (...)

The General Court maintains the fines imposed by the Commission on several undertakings by reason of their participation in a cartel on the market for aluminium electrolytic capacitors and tantalum electrolytic capacitors * By decision of 21 March 2018 [1], the Commission imposed a total fine (...)

The General Court annuls the decisions by which the Commission found that an arbitration award setting an allegedly preferential tariff for electricity did not involve the granting of an advantage to the aluminium producer Mytilinaios* The Commission was required to examine diligently, (...)

The General Court dismisses Altice Europe’s action against the Commission decision imposing two fines totalling €124.5 million in connection with the acquisition of PT Portugal* However, it orders the amount of the fine relating to the breach of the obligation to notify the concentration to the (...)

The General Court confirms that the aid granted by Austria to Austrian Airlines in order to compensate it for the damage resulting from the cancellation or rescheduling of its flights due to the COVID-19 pandemic is compatible with the internal market* That aid, having been deducted from the (...)

Tax rulings issued to Nike and Converse by the Netherlands tax administration: the General Court dismisses the action brought against the Commission’s decision to initiate the formal investigation procedure* The Commission complied with the procedural rules, and neither failed to fulfil its (...)

The General Court annuls the Commission decision finding that the non-charging of a deposit on certain drinks packaging sold by German border shops to customers resident in Denmark does not constitute State aid* The Commission was not in a position to overcome, at the preliminary stage, all (...)

The General Court annuls the Commission decision approving the State aid granted by Germany to the airline Condor Flugdienst on the grounds of an inadequate statement of reasons* However, because of the economic and social context marked by the Covid-19 pandemic, it suspends the effects of the (...)

The solvency support fund for strategic Spanish undertakings experiencing temporary difficulties due to the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic is compatible with EU law* The measure at issue, intended for the adoption of recapitalisation measures with a budget of €10 billion, constitutes a State (...)

No selective advantage in favour of a Luxembourg subsidiary of the Amazon group: the General Court annuls the Commission’s decision declaring the aid incompatible with the internal market* According to the General Court, the Commission did not prove to the requisite legal standard that there (...)

Aid measures introduced by Sweden and Denmark for SAS for damage resulting from the cancellation or rescheduling of flights in the wake of travel restrictions caused by the Covid-19 pandemic comply with EU law* Given that SAS’s market share is much higher than that of its closest competitor in (...)

The General Court confirms that the rules of the International Skating Union (ISU) providing for severe penalties for athletes taking part in speed skating events not recognised by it are contrary to EU competition law* On the other hand, the Commission was wrong to dispute the ISU’s (...)

The General Court upholds the Commission’s decision finding that the national railway company of Lithuania abused its dominant position on the Lithuanian rail freight market* Lietuvos geležinkeliai AB (‘LG’), the national railway company of Lithuania, both manages railway infrastructure and (...)

The General Court annuls in part the Commission’s inspection decisions following suspicions of anticompetitive practices by a number of French undertakings in the distribution sector* The Commission has failed to show that it had sufficiently strong evidence to suspect exchanges of information (...)

The Spanish tax system applicable to certain finance lease agreements entered into by shipyards constitutes an aid scheme* The unlawful State aid granted under that system must be recovered from the beneficiaries In 2006, the European Commission received a number of complaints concerning the (...)

The General Court of the European Union annuls the decision taken by the Commission regarding the Irish tax rulings in favour of Apple* The General Court annuls the contested decision because the Commission did not succeed in showing to the requisite legal standard that there was an advantage (...)

The General Court orders that the fine imposed on Infineon for its participation in a cartel in the smart card chip market be reduced by almost €6 million, from €82,784,000 to €76,871,600* The Commission took insufficient account of the limited number of the anticompetitive contacts which (...)

The General Court annuls the Commission’s decision to block the proposed acquisition of Telefónica UK by Hutchison 3G UK in the sector of the mobile telephony market* On 11 May 2016, [1] the Commission adopted a decision in which it blocked, under the Merger Regulation, [2] the proposed (...)

The General Court dismisses the actions against the Commission decision declaring illegal the aid from Italy to several airlines serving Sardinia* The operators of the Sardinian airports were not the beneficiaries of the aid but merely intermediaries between the Autonomous Region and the (...)

The General Court reduces the fines imposed by the Commission on Panasonic and on Toshiba for their participation in a cartel on the European market for tubes for television sets* However, it confirms the fines imposed on the other members of the cartel By decision of 5 December 2012, [1] the (...)

The General Court provides clarification as to the functioning of the European Network of Competition Authorities* The European Commission was justified in law in rejecting the complaint lodged by easyJet against Schiphol airport’s pricing on the basis that that complaint had already been dealt (...)

The General Court reduces the fine imposed on Arkema and its subsidiaries for their participation in a cartel in the methacrylates sector from €219.1 million to €113.3 million* However, the Court upholds the fines imposed on the parent companies Total and Elf Aquitaine By decision of 31 May (...)

THE COURT OF FIRST INSTANCE ANNULS THE DECISION REFUSING CONFIDENTIAL TREATMENT FOR THE PUBLISHED VERSION OF A COMMISSION DECISION ON CARTELS* For the Commission to be entitled to disclose to the public the details of an undertaking’s infringement in respect of which proceedings are time (...)

The court of first instance upholds the prohibition of general electric’s acquisition of honeywell* Although the Commission made errors in its decision declaring the concentration to be incompatible with the common market, in particular in its analysis of conglomerate effects resulting from the (...)

The Court of First Instance upholds the prohibition of the acquisition of Gas de Portugal by Energias de Portugal and ENI* Although the Commission made a number of errors in its decision concerning the gas markets, the strengthening of the dominant positions of Energias de Portugal on the (...)

THE COURT ANNULS A COMMISSION DECISION REJECTING IN ITS ENTIRETY A REQUEST FOR ACCESS TO THE ADMINISTRATIVE FILE IN A COMPETITION CASE CONCERNING AUSTRIAN BANKS* Concrete, individual examination of the documents referred to in a request for access is one of the elementary duties of an (...)

THE COURT OF FIRST INSTANCE REDUCES THE FINES IMPOSED BY THE EUROPEAN COMMISSION ON STEEL TUBE PRODUCERS BY 13 MILLION EUROS The Commission was unable to produce evidence covering the entire duration of the infringement By a decision of 8 December 1999, [1] the European Commission ordered (...)

THE COURT OF FIRST INSTANCE REDUCES THE FINES IMPOSED BY THE DECISION OF THE COMMISSION AGAINST AN ANTICOMPETITIVE CARTEL IN THE GRAPHITE ELECTRODE MARKET The total amount of the fines is reduced from EUR 207.2 million to EUR 152.8 million In a decision of 2001, the Commission found the (...)

The court of first instance upholds the ruling against British airways for abuse of a dominant position* The performance reward schemes used by British Airways to calculate travel agents’ commissions constitutes an abuse of the dominant position held by British Airways on the United Kingdom (...)

THE COURT OF FIRST INSTANCE CONFIRMS THE SUBSTANCE OF THE COMMISSION’S DECISION SANCTIONING ANTI-COMPETITIVE CARTELS IN THE GREECE-ITALY SHIPPING SECTOR* Fines imposed on Ventouris Group Enterprises SA and Adriatica di Navigazione SpA alone were reduced on the ground that the Commission’s (...)

The court of first instance annuls the commission’s decision declaring volkswagen’s commercial practices with regard to its german dealers unlawful* The Commission did not prove an agreement between the automobile manufacturer and its authorised dealers to fix a selling price by prohibiting (...)

The court of first instance essentially confirms the commission’s decision concerning the existence of an obstacle to free competition* The amount of the fine is reduced from EUR 43 million to EUR 35 475 000 Opel Nederland, which is the sole company for the sale, import, export and wholesale (...)

THE COURT DISMISSES SIX OF THE EIGHT APPEALS BROUGHT BY STEEL UNDERTAKINGS AND THEIR TRADE ASSOCIATION EUROFER WHICH HAD BEEN FOUND GUILTY OF ENGAGING IN A CARTEL* The Court annuls two judgments of the Court of First Instance: that concerning ARBED SA in its entirety and that concerning (...)

The court of first instance upholds the commission’s decision to fine michelin for practices which are unfair to its dealers* A company in a dominant position, which operates a system of loyalty rebates and bonuses for its dealers, thereby strengthens its position to the detriment of other (...)

The Court of First Instance for the most part confirms the Commission’s decision approving the merger between SEB and Moulinex.* Nevertheless the Court annuls the decision insofar as it concerns the markets in those countries not subject to the conditions imposed by the Commission in approving (...)

The Court of First Instance dismisses the action brought by Fenin against the Commission* Where a body or organisation purchases goods for use in connection with an activity which is not economic in nature, it may not be regarded as an undertaking for the purposes of Community competition law (...)

THE COURT OF FIRST INSTANCE ANNULS A COMMISSION DECISION PROHIBITING THE MERGER OF TETRA LAVAL AND SIDEL AND THE RELATED DIVESTITURE DECISION.* The economic analysis of the immediate anti-competitive effects, of conglomerate effects and of the foreseeable conduct of the companies in question (...)

The Court of First Instance annuls the Commission’s decisions prohibiting the concentration between schneider and legrand and ordering them to separate accordingly* The Commission’s economic analysis is vitiated by errors and omissions which deprive it of probative value, save in relation to (...)

THE COURT OF FIRST INSTANCE CONFIRMS THE EXISTENCE OF A CARTEL IN THE EUROPEAN DISTRICT HEATING MARKET.* The fines imposed by the European Commission are generally upheld by the Court of First Instance, the total amount being EUR 83,410,000. However, the fines imposed on two undertakings have (...)

THE COURT OF FIRST INSTANCE GENERALLY CONFIRMS THE COMMISSION DECISION FINING 12 PVC PRODUCERS FOR PARTICIPATING IN AN ILLEGAL CARTEL* However, the Commission fines totalling 19 250 000 euros are reduced in respect of three undertakings In October 1983, following investigations conducted in (...)

Case T-395/94 R Atlantic Container Line and Others v. Commission of the European Communities* The urgency of an application for interim measures must be assessed in relation to the necessity for an interim order to prevent serious and irreparable damage to the party applying for them. It is (...)