The European Court of Justice confirms the legality of the Commission’s guidelines on fines (Pre-insulated pipes)

"The ‘Pre-insulated pipes’ judgment: the European Court of Justice confirms the legality of the Commission’s Guidelines on fines"*Introduction On 28 June 2005 the Court of Justice confirmed in substance the decision of the European Commission of 21 October 1998 concerning a cartel on the European district heating market [1] and dismissed all appeals of several undertakings involved. This judgment was of particular importance for the Commission as the highest Community Court confirmed the existence of the cartel and ruled for the first time on the legality of the Commission’s Guidelines on fines [2] and, in particular, the method of calculating the amount of fines the Commission has been using in its decisions since 1998. Background District heating systems are commonly employed in the