The EU Court of Justice clarifies the notion of burden of proof in a price-fixing cartel in the stainless steel sector (Acerinox)

Case T-48/98 Compania española para la fabricación de aceros inoxidables, SA (Acerinox) v Commission of the European Communities* 1. Where there is a dispute as to the existence of an infringement of the competition rules, it is incumbent on the Commission to prove the infringements which it has found and to adduce evidence capable of demonstrating to the requisite legal standard the existence of circumstances constituting an infringement. However, once it has been established that an undertaking has participated in meetings of a manifestly anti-competitive nature between undertakings, it is incumbent on that undertaking to put forward evidence to establish that its participation in those meetings was without any anti-competitive intention by demonstrating that it had indicated to its