Judgment — ECLI:EU:C:2017:598
Date: 2017-07-26
Language of the case: English
Court formation: Sixth Chamber
Subject matter: Competition
Procedure: Action for annulment;Appeal - unfounded
Origin: Belgium;Germany;France;United Kingdom;Italy

Judgment of the Court (Sixth Chamber) of 26 July 2017 — AGC Glass Europe and Others v Commission (Case C‑517/15 P) (1) (Appeal — Competition — Articles 101 TFEU and 102 TFEU — Regulation (EC) No 1/2003 — Article 30 — Decision of the European Commission finding an unlawful cartel on the European market for automotive glass — Publication of a non-confidential version of that decision — Rejection of a request for confidential treatment of certain information — Terms of reference of the hearing officer — Decision 2011/695/EU — Article 8 — Confidentiality — Information from a leniency application — Partial rejection of the request for confidential treatment — Legitimate expectations — Equal treatment) 1. Competition — Administrative procedure — Professional secrecy — Decision of the hearing officer concerning disclosure of a Commission decision penalising an infringement of the competition rules — Obligations of the hearing officer – Scope and limits (Commission Decision 2011/695, Art. 8) (see paras 39-46, 51-59) 2. Appeal — Grounds – Distortion of the facts and evidence – Requirement that the distortion be manifestly apparent from the documents before the Court (Art. 256(1), second para., TFEU; Statute of the Court of Justice, Art. 58, first para.) (see paras 60-64) 3. Competition — Administrative procedure — Commission decision finding an infringement — Publication of information provided to the Commission voluntarily by an undertaking which participated in the infringement in order to benefit from the leniency programme — Infringement of the rights under the Leniency Notice of the undertaking concerned — No such infringement — No infringement of the principle of legitimate expectations (Art. 101 TFEU; Council Regulation No 1/2003, Art. 30, Commission Notice 2002/C 45/03) (see paras 73-83) 4. Competition — Administrative procedure — Commission decision finding an infringement — Publication of information provided to the Commission voluntarily by an undertaking which participated in the infringement in order to benefit from the leniency programme — No breach of the principle of equal treatment (Art. 101 TFEU; Council Regulation No 1/2003, Art. 30; Commission Notice 2002/C 45/03) (see paras 84-88) Operative part 1. Dismisses the appeal. 2. Orders AGC Glass Europe SA, AGC Automotive Europe SA, AGC France SAS, AGC Flat Glass Italia Srl, AGC Glass UK Ltd and AGC Glass Germany GmbH to pay the costs. 1 OJ C 398, 30.11.2015.