Judgments (Information) nº T-379/10 and T-381/10 of The General Court, September 16, 2013

• Resolution Date: September 16, 2013
• Issuing Organization: The General Court
• Decision Number: T-379/10 and T-381/10

Judgment of the General Court (Fourth Chamber) of 16 September 2013 —Keramag Keramische Werke and Others v Commission (Joined Cases T‑379/10 and T‑381/10)

Competition — Agreements, decisions and concerted practices — Bathroom fittings and fixtures markets of Belgium, Germany, France, Italy, the Netherlands and Austria — Decision finding an infringement of Article 101 TFEU and Article 53 of the EEA Agreement — Coordination of price increases and exchange of sensitive business information — Duration of the infringement — Rights of the defence — Access to the file — Attributability of unlawful conduct

1. Competition — Fines — Amount — Determination — Discretion of the Commission — Judicial review — Unlimited jurisdiction of the EU judicature — Scope — Account taken of the guidelines for the calculation of fines — Limits — Compliance with general legal principles (Arts 261 TFEU and 263 TFEU; Council Regulation No 1/2003, Art. 31; Commission Notice 2006/C 210/02) (see paras 34, 331, 332, 339, 340, 345)

2. Judicial proceedings — Measures of inquiry — Discretion of the General Court (Rules of Procedure of the General Court, Arts 65 and 66) (see para. 40)

3. Judicial proceedings — Application initiating proceedings — Formal requirements — No brief summary of the pleas in law on which the application is based — Inadmissibility (Statute of the Court of Justice, Art. 21, first para.; Rules of Procedure of the General Court, Art. 44(1)(c)) (see paras 41, 286, 287)

4. Actions for annulment — Community law — Interest in bringing proceedings — To be considered of the Court’s own motion (Art. 263 TFEU; Rules of Procedure of the General Court, Art. 113) (see para. 44)

5. Agreements, decisions and concerted practices — Concerted practice — Concept — Coordination and cooperation incompatible with the obligation on each undertaking to determine independently its conduct on the market — Exchange of information between competitors — Anti-competitive object or effect — Presumption — Conditions (Art. 101(1) TFEU) (see paras 51-59, 91, 92, 135, 150, 221, 282)

6. Agreements, decisions and concerted practices — Prohibition — Infringements — Agreements and concerted practices constituting a single infringement — Attribution of liability for an undertaking by reason of participation in the infringement considered as a whole — Conditions — Whether sufficient, for an undertaking to be liable, that it tacitly approved without public distancing or denunciation to the...