JFE Engineering Corp., formerly NKK Corp. (T-67/00), Nippon Steel Corp. (T-68/00), JFE Steel Corp. (T-71/00) and Sumitomo Metal Industries Ltd (T-78/00) v Commission of the European Communities.

• Jurisdiction: European Union
• ECLI: ECLI:EU:T:2004:221
• Court: General Court (European Union)
• Date: 08 July 2004
• Docket Number: T-68/00,,T-67/00,,T-78/00,T-71/00
• Celex Number: 62000TJ0067
• Procedure Type: Recours en annulation - fondé

Joined Cases T-67/00, T-68/00, T-71/00 and T-78/00

JFE Engineering Corp. and Others

v

Commission of the European Communities

(Agreements, decisions and concerted practices – Market in seamless steel tubes and pipes – EFTA – Powers of the Commission – Infringement – Fines)

Judgment of the Court of First Instance (Second Chamber), 8 July 2004

Summary of the Judgment

1. Actions for annulment – Jurisdiction of the Community judicature – Replacement of an addressee of a decision of a Community institution by a new addressee – Not possible when the designated addressee still exists

(Arts 229 EC and 230, fourth para., EC)

2. Actions for annulment – Application brought by the natural or legal person to whom the contested measure is addressed – Transfer of the application to a third person – Not permissible

(Arts 229 EC and 230, fourth para., EC)

3. Competition – Community rules – Infringements – Imputation – Natural or legal person managing the undertaking at the time of the infringement – Acceptance of responsibility by another person who has taken over the running of the undertaking – Lawfulness – Scope

4. Community law – Principles – Fundamental rights – Presumption of innocence – Procedures in competition matters – Applicability

5. Competition – Administrative procedure – Commission decision finding an infringement – Means of proof – Reliance on a body of evidence – Degree of evidential value necessary as regards items of evidence viewed in isolation

(Art. 81(1) EC)

6. Competition – Administrative procedure – Commission decision finding an infringement consisting in the conclusion of an anti‑competitive agreement – Decision relying on documentary evidence – Evidential obligations on undertakings disputing the existence of the infringement

(Art. 85(1) EC)

7. Competition – Agreements, decisions and concerted practices – Agreements between undertakings – Prejudicial to competition – Criteria for assessment – Anti‑competitive object – Sufficient finding

(Art. 81(1)(c) EC)

8. Competition – Agreements, decisions and concerted practices – Agreements between undertakings – Burden of proving the infringement on the Commission – Limits

(Art. 81(1)(c) EC)

9. Competition – Agreements, decisions and concerted practices – Agreements between undertakings – Proof – Undertaking’s reply to the Commission’s request for information – Statement of an undertaking disputed by other undertakings – Statement made before a public prosecutor – Probative value – Assessment

(Council Regulation No 17, Art. 11)

10. Competition – Agreements, decisions and concerted practices – Agreements between undertakings – Evidence of the infringement – Production by the Commission of a document without revealing its source – Lawfulness

11. Competition – Agreements, decisions and concerted practices – Participation in meetings of undertakings having an anti-competitive object – Circumstance from which, where the undertaking concerned has not distanced itself from the decisions adopted, it may be concluded that it participated in the ensuing cartel

(Art. 81(1) EC)

12. Competition – Administrative procedure – Commission decision finding an infringement – Evidence which has to be gathered – Degree of precision required as regards the type of products covered by the infringement

(Art. 81(1) EC)

13. Procedure – Proof – Burden of proof – Transfer from the applicant to the defendant in a particular case – Inability of the Commission to state the date of expiry of an agreement with a non-member State concluded by the Commission

14. Competition – Agreements, decisions and concerted practices – Agreements and concerted practices constituting a single infringement – Undertakings to which an infringement in the form of participation in an overall cartel may be imputed – Criteria

(Art. 81(1) EC)

15. Competition – Agreements, decisions and concerted practices – Effect on trade between Member States – Criteria

(Art. 81(1) EC)

16. Acts of the institutions – Statement of reasons – Obligation – Scope

(Art. 253 EC)

17. Actions for annulment – Pleas in law – Breach of the rights of the defence – Subjective nature which precludes review by the Court of its own motion

(Art. 230 EC; Rules of Procedure of the Court of First Instance, Art. 48(2))

18. Competition – Administrative procedure – Commission decision finding an infringement – Decision not identical to the statement of objections – Infringement of the rights of the defence – Condition – Impossibility for the undertaking to defend itself against an objection finally upheld

(Council Regulation No 17, Art. 19(1))

19. Competition – Administrative procedure – Statement of objections – Necessary content

(Council Regulation No 17, Art. 19(1))

20. Competition – Administrative procedure – Respective competences of the Commission and the Surveillance Authority of the European Free Trade Association – One-stop-shop principle – Opening of a procedure on the basis of provisions both of the EC Treaty and of the Agreement on the European Economic Area – Lawfulness – Condition – Impossibility, at that stage, to determine which authority is competent to find and sanction the alleged infringement

(Art. 81 EC; EEA Agreement, Arts 56 and 109; Regulation No 17)

21. Competition – Fines – Amount – Determination – Non-imposition or reduction of the fine in return for the cooperation of the undertaking concerned – Respect for the principle of equal treatment

(Council Regulation No 17, Art. 15(2))

22. Competition – Fines – Amount – Determination – Criteria – Cooperation by the undertaking during the administrative procedure – Definition – Merely providing information requested without recognising the existence of the infringement – Not included

(Council Regulation No 17, Art. 15(2))

23. Competition – Fines – Amount – Determination – Criteria – Gravity of the infringement

(Council Regulation No 17, Art. 15(2))

24. Competition – Fines – Amount – Determination – Commission’s margin of discretion – Limits – Compliance with the Guidelines adopted by the Commission – Compliance with the general rules and principles of Community law

(Council Regulation No 17, Art. 15; Commission Communication 98/C 9/03)

25. Competition – Fines – Amount – Discretion of the Commission – Judicial review – Unlimited jurisdiction – Condition for the exercise thereof – Scope

(Art. 229 EC; Council Regulation No 17, Art. 17)

1. The transferee of the entire business of a natural or legal person who has ceased to exist is necessarily substituted by operation of law for that person as addressee of a measure of an institution and can therefore pursue an action for annulment which that natural or legal person had brought.

On the other hand, the Community judicature has no power in the context of an action for annulment under Article 230 EC, not even in the exercise of its unlimited jurisdiction under Article 229 EC with regard to penalties in order to amend the decision of a Community institution by replacing the addressee thereof by another natural or legal person when that addressee still exists. That power belongs a priori only to the institution that adopted the measure concerned. Thus, once the competent institution has adopted a decision and, therefore, established the identity of the person to whom the decision is to be addressed, it is not for the Court to substitute another person for the latter.

(see paras 46-47)

2. An application brought by a person in his capacity of addressee of a measure in order to give effect to his rights in the context of an action for annulment under Article 230 EC and/or of an application for amendment under Article 229 EC cannot be transferred to a third person who is not the addressee thereof. If such a transfer were to be allowed, there would be a discrepancy between the status by virtue of which the action was brought and the status by virtue of which it was purportedly pursued. Moreover, such a transfer would give rise to a discrepancy between the identity of the addressee of the measure and that of the person litigating as addressee.

(see para. 48)

3. The person who becomes responsible for the running of an undertaking may, at the stage of the administrative procedure before the Commission, assume, by making a declaration to that effect, responsibility for the matters alleged against the person actually responsible, even though it falls, in principle, to the natural or legal person managing the undertaking in question when the infringement was committed to answer for that infringement. However, such a declaration cannot have the effect of changing the identity of the addressee of a Commission decision once the decision has been adopted or that of the applicant in an action for the annulment of such a decision once the action has been brought.

(see para. 50)

4. The principle of the presumption of innocence resulting in particular from Article 6(2) of the European Convention on Human Rights is one of the fundamental rights which, according to the case-law of the Court of Justice and as reaffirmed in the preamble to the Single European Act, by Article 6(2) of the Treaty on European Union and by Article 47 of the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union, are protected in the Community legal order. Given the nature of the infringements in question and the nature and degree of severity of the ensuing penalties, the principle of the presumption of innocence applies in particular to the procedures relating to infringements of the competition rules applicable to undertakings that may result in the imposition of fines or periodic penalty payments.

It follows that where there is doubt, the benefit of that doubt must be given to the undertakings accused of the infringement. The Court cannot therefore conclude that the Commission has established the existence of the infringement at issue to the requisite legal standard, as it is required...