Cartels: The EU General Court clarifies the meaning and the regime of continuous infringement (Wieland-Werke)

*This article is an automatic translation of the original article, provided here for your convenience. Read the original article. In six judgments delivered today, 19 May 2010, in the cases of T-11/05, T-18/05, T-19/05, T-20/05, T-21/05 & T-25/05 (Wieland-Werke AG and Others, IMI plc and Others, Boliden AB and Others, Outokumpu Oyj and Others, T-21/05 & T-25/05), Chalkor AE & KME Germany AG and Others v Commission), concerning the copper plumbing tubes cartel, the Court of First Instance essentially upheld the Commission's decision of 3 September 2004 by which it fined the main European producers of copper plumbing tubes in the sum of EUR 222.3 million to seven companies. It rejected the now traditional pleas concerning the legality of Article 23 of Regulation No 1/2003,