Judgment — ECLI:EU:C:2001:276
Date: 2001-05-17
Language of the case: English
Court formation: Full Court
Based on: Treaty establishing the European Economic Community (1957)
Subject matter: Competition;Agreements, decisions and concerted practices;Dominant position
Concepts: Bringing matters before the Commission
Procedure: Action for annulment;Appeal - unfounded

Summary of the Judgment 
1. Competition — Administrative procedure — Examination of complaints — State­
ment of reasons for a decision rejecting a complaint 
(Council Regulation No 17, Art. 3) 
2. Competition — Administrative procedure — Examination of complaints — 
Account taken of Community interest attached to the investigation of a case — 
Criteria of assessment 
(Council Regulation No 17, Art. 3) 
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SUMMARY — CASE C-450/98 P 
1. When it rejects a complaint submitted 
to it under Article 3 of Regulation 
No 17, the Commission is required to 
set out the reasons for its decisions to 
reject it, and more particularly to state 
the reasons for its assessment of whe­
ther or not it was appropriate to 
examine the complaint any further, in 
a sufficiently precise and detailed man­
ner to enable the Community judica­
ture effectively to review the Commis­
sion's use of its discretion to define 
priorities. On the other hand, it is 
under no obligation to include in its 
decision an express reference to the 
concept of Community interest. 
(see para. 54) 
2. The Commission, in the exercise of its 
discretion, must take into considera­
tion all the relevant matters of law and 
of fact in order to decide on what 
action to take in response to a com­
plaint and more particularly, must 
consider attentively all the matters of 
fact and of law which the complainant 
brings to its attention. However, in 
view of the fact that the assessment of 
the Community interest raised by a 
complaint depends on the circum­
stances of each case, the number of 
criteria of assessment to which the 
Commission may refer should not be 
limited nor, conversely, should it be 
required to have recourse exclusively to 
certain criteria. 
(see paras 57-58) 
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