The Luxembourg Administrative Tribunal upholds fines and periodic penalty payments imposed by the Competition Council (”House of Justice" case)

Background By a decision of 30 April 2007 (the "Decision") the Competition Council (the "Council") imposed fines and periodic penalty payments on three companies which had refused to submit appropriate information to the Competition Inspectorate (the "Inspectorate") in the course of a cartel investigation. In its Decision, the particular issue the Council had to address with was the legal basis on which fines could be imposed in application of articles 18,(1),1) and 18,(1),2) of the law on competition of 17 May 2004, as amended (the "Law on Competition"), i.e. for not providing the information requested by the Competition Inspectorate. In its decision of 30 April 2008 (the "Judgment") and two other similar judgments [1] the Administrative Tribunal upheld the Decision of the Council.