86

In the present case, it should be noted, as the ECHA points out in its pleadings, that, by letters of 20 February and 20 March 2012, the applicant was asked to supply information concerning the number of employees and the balance sheets for the last two accounting periods preceding the registrations, as well as information on its ownership structure when the registration dossiers were submitted, including information on undertakings linked to the applicant or in partnership with it. As regards the request concerning the number of employees and the balance sheets for the last two accounting periods, this was warranted in the light of, inter alia, Article 4(2) of the Annex to Recommendation 2003/361. According to that provision, ‘where, at the date of closure of the accounts, an enterprise finds that, on an annual basis, it has exceeded or fallen below the headcount or financial ceilings stated in Article 2, this will not result in the loss or acquisition of the status of medium-sized, small or micro enterprise unless those ceilings are exceeded over two consecutive accounting periods’. Furthermore, as indicated in various exchanges of letters and emails between the ECHA and the applicant, the former’s requests concerning the ownership structure of the applicant and the information relating to companies regarded as partners or linked companies was also based on the information forwarded by the applicant, particularly its audited financial statements. Among other things, the ECHA was able to determine, in an email sent to the applicant on 4 March 2013, that the applicant had to be regarded as being linked to two undertakings, Saced and Cogefin, and as being a partner of two other undertakings, Premix and Sicical. The ECHA also found that one undertaking, Calme Lux, had to be regarded as being linked to Sicical. It was on the basis of these findings, and having regard to the first subparagraph of Article 6(3) of the Annex to Recommendation 2003/361, that the ECHA asked the applicant, in particular, for information on Calme Lux. That article provides that ‘the data of the partner enterprises of the enterprise in question are derived from their accounts and their other data, consolidated if they exist. To these is added 100% of the data of enterprises which are linked to these partner enterprises, unless their accounts data are already included through consolidation’. At the hearing, the applicant confirmed that Calme Lux could be regarded as an undertaking linked to one of its partner undertakings, in this instance Sicical. It follows from these considerations that the ECHA’s request for information, particularly in respect of Calme Lux, in the light of the criteria set out in Recommendation 2003/361 and the documents supplied by the applicant, cannot be considered to be unreasonable. In addition, the applicant does not put forward any evidence to suggest that the information requested by the ECHA could not be sent to it. The applicant simply stated, in essence, that it could not send the ECHA information relating to a third company. That, in itself, is not capable of demonstrating that the applicant was genuinely unable to provide the requested information to the ECHA. The ECHA also informed the applicant on several occasions that Calme Lux could provide it with the information in question directly, as is apparent from, inter alia, the emails sent to the applicant on 19 June, 4 July and 8 August 2012 and 4 March 2013. The applicant failed to show that that option was not feasible in the present case.