Order — ECLI:EU:C:2012:571
Date: 2012-09-13
Language of the case: French
Court formation: Seventh Chamber
Subject matter: Competition;Agreements, decisions and concerted practices
Procedure: Action for annulment;Appeal - unfounded;Appeal - inadmissible;Appeal against penalty
Origin: France

Order of the Court (Seventh Chamber) of 13 September 2012 — Total and Elf Aquitaine v Commission (Case C‑495/11 P) Appeal — Regulation (EC) No 1/2003 — Competition — Agreements, decisions and concerted practices — Infringement of the principles of conferred powers and of proportionality — Manifestly incorrect interpretation — Infringement of the rights of the defence and of the principles of equity and of the equality of arms — Duty to state reasons 1. Appeals — Grounds — Requirement that criticism of the reasoning of the General Court be specific (Art. 256 TFEU; Statute of the Court of Justice, Art. 58; Rules of Procedure of the Court of Justice, Art. 112(1)(c)) (see paras 14, 29, 72, 84) 2. Competition — European Union rules — Infringements — Attribution — Parent company and subsidiaries — Economic unit — Criteria for assessment — Presumption of a decisive influence exerted by the parent company over its wholly-owned subsidiaries — Evidential obligations of the company seeking to rebut that presumption (Art. 101 TFEU) (see paras 26, 28, 31, 36, 42, 57) 3. Acts of the institutions — Grounds — Obligation — Scope — Decision imposing fines for the infringement of the competition rules and concerning a number or addressees — Attribution of the practices of a subsidiary to its parent company — Requirements of explicit grounds (Arts 101 TFEU and 296, second para. TFEU) (see paras 48-49, 51) 4. Appeals — Grounds — Review by the Court of the assessment of the facts submitted to the General Court — Possible only where the clear sense of the evidence has been distorted (Art. 256 TFEU; Statute of the Court of Justice, Art. 58, first para.) (see para. 52) 5. Competition — Fines — Amount — Determination — Deterrent effect — Taking account of the size and overall resources of the undertaking on which the fine was imposed (Art. 101 TFEU; Council Regulation No 1/2003, Art. 23) (see para. 80) Re: Appeal brought against the judgment of the General Court (Sixth Chamber, Extended Composition) of 14 July 2011 in Case T‑190/06 Total and Elf Aquitaine v Commission by which that Court dismissed the action for partial annulment of Commission Decision C(2006) 1766 final of 3 May 2006 relating to a proceeding under Article 81 [EC] and Article 53 of the EEA Agreement (Case COMP/F/38.620 — Hydrogen peroxide and perborate) — Competition — Agreements, decisions and concerted practices — Infringement of the principles of conferred powers and of proportionality — Manifestly incorrect interpretation — Infringement of the rights of the defence and of the principles of equity and of the equality of arms — Duty to state reasons. Operative part 1. The appeal is dismissed. 2. Total SA and Elf Aquitaine SA are ordered to pay the costs.