The Court of Justice does not often interfere, on appeal, with the way fines for competition cases are calculated and scrutinised by the General Court. It will do so, however, if an error of law is made, for example.
In Case C-408/12 P YKK Corporation and others v Commission EU:C:2014:66 the Court of Justice did find an error and it did readjust the amount of the fine imposed on a company for infringing the competition rules. Here’s what happened….
The Court of Justice has handed down three judgments relating to fines imposed on a number of undertakings involved in the gas insulated switchgear cartel. There’s an interesting and distinct point in each judgment so we’ll write about them separately.
First off will be the judgment in Joined Cases C-247/11 P and C-253/11 P Areva EU:C:2014:257. That judgment contains some interesting points about what constitutes an “undertaking” and the concept of joint and several liability of a parent company for fines for infringements of competition law committed by a subsidiary in the event of succession of companies and transfer of subsidiaries between parents. Continue reading
EU litigation 