The EU Court of Justice Advocate General Sharpston voices opinion on the standard of judicial review over fines in cartel cases (KME)

This article is the winner of the business category, anticompetitive practices section of the 2012 Antitrust Writing Awards. Click here to learn more about the Antitrust Writing Awards. In an Opinion delivered on 10 February 2011, Advocate General (‘AG’) Sharpston of the European Court of Justice (‘ECJ’) considered the nature of the review which the General Court of the European Union (‘General Court’) must carry out when exercising its unlimited jurisdiction over fines imposed by the European Commission (‘the Commission’) in cartel cases. The AG concludes that: • the procedure whereby fines are imposed in cartel cases falls under the ‘criminal head’ of Article 6 of the European Convention on Human Rights (‘ECHR’); • however, that procedure differs from the ‘hardcore’ of criminal