Case T-62/02: Action brought on 1 March 2002 by Waardals AS against the Commission of the European Communities
Date: 2002-06-01
Institutions: Court of First Instance
Subjects: European Commission, action for annulment (EU), chemical industry, equal treatment, fine, inter-company agreement

C 131/20

EN

Official Journal of the European Communities

1.6.2002

Action brought on 1 March 2002 by Waardals AS against
the Commission of the European Communities

(Case T-62/02)

(2002/C 131/38)

(Language of the case: English)

An action against the Commission of the European Communi-
ties was brought before the Court of First Instance of the
European Communities on 1 March 2002 by Waardals AS,
represented by Mr Trygve Olavson Laake and Mr Jan Magne
Langseth of Advokatfirmaet Schjødt AS, Stavanger (Norway).

The applicant claims that the Court should:

— annul Article 1 of the Decision in so far as it concerns the
applicant, or, in the alternative, reduce the duration of
the infringement in so far as it concerns the applicant;

— annul the fine imposed upon the applicant by Article 3(f)
of the Decision, or, in the alternative, substantially reduce
the amount of the fine imposed;

— grant its request for measures of organisation of pro-
cedure including the summoning and hearing of witnesses
and access to the Commission’s report from the Hearing;

— order the Commission to pay the costs.

— that the Commission incorrectly calculated the fine and
incorrectly applied the Guidelines on the method of
setting fines. On this point, the applicant states that the
fine was increased on the basis of the duration of the
infringement and because of the fact that the Commission
did not differentiate between the members of the cartel
in an appropriate manner. Moreover, the Commission
has not taken into account that the applicant was invited
to join a cartel that already existed, and that it never was
part of the ‘inner circle’, nor has the Commission taken
into account that Waardals implemented the agreements
in question only to a very slight degree. In setting the
fines, the defendant consequently infringed the principles
of equal treatment and proportionality and misapplied
the Guidelines mentioned above.

Action brought on 4 March 2002 by Maria Concetta
Cerafogli and Paolo Poloni against European Central Bank

(Case T-63/02)

(2002/C 131/39)

(Language of the case: German)

Pleas in law and main arguments

The Decision which is challenged in this case is the same as
that
in Case T-33/02 Britannia Alloys & Chemicals -v-
Commission. The grounds and main arguments are similar to
those raised in that case.

An action against the European Central Bank was brought
before the Court of First Instance of the European Communities
on 4 March 2002 by Maria Concetta Cerafogli and Paolo
Poloni, of Frankfurt am Main, represented by Boris Karthaus,
Christian Roth and Tanja Raab-Rhein, lawyers, with an address
for service in Luxembourg.

In particular, the applicant submits:

The applicants claim that the Court should:

— that the Commission has based its calculation of the fine
on an incorrect assessment of the evidence and facts of
the case. Firstly, the Commission found that all addressees
of
the
the Decision committed an infringement of
same duration, 4 years and 1 month. In so doing, the
Commission should have not taken into account that
Waardals’ infringement ceased between April 1995 and
August 1995. The defendant should have ignored the
fact that the applicant withdrew from the cartel and
terminated its infringements immediately following the
investigations.

1. Annul the statements of earnings issued to the applicants

for the month of July 2001;

2. Order the defendant to issue the applicants with state-
ments of earnings on the basis of an annual salary
adjustment of at least 2,7 % in the month of July 2001;

3.

to issue the
In the alternative, order the defendant
applicants with statements of earnings in accordance with
the view of the law taken by the Court;