Case T-151/05: Action brought on 14 April 2005 by Nederlandse Vakbond Varkenshouders and Others v Commission of the European Communities
Date: 2005-07-09
Institutions: Court of First Instance
Subjects: European Commission, action for annulment (EU), dominant position, economic concentration, live animal, merger control, purchase, slaughter of animals, swine

C 171/24

EN

Official Journal of the European Union

9.7.2005

The applicant submits that, by failing to take account of a very
distinct category of economic operators in the banana sector,
the ‘independent’ ACP producers, which are neither operators
nor part of large European or multinational groups and, by
failing to adopt the appropriate measures to remedy the conse-
quences arising from that, although the Commission is bound
to avoid disrupting normal commercial
relations between
persons at different levels of the commercial chain, the Council
and the Commission have conducted themselves in such a
manner as to incur non-contractual liability.

Vakbond Varkenshouders (Netherlands Association of pig bree-
ders), established in Lunteren (Netherlands); Marius Schep,
residing in Lopik (Netherlands) and the Nederlandse Bond van
livestock
Handelaren in Vee
dealers), established in the Hague (Netherlands), represented by
Johannes Kneppelhout and Monique Charlotte van der Kaden.

association of

(Netherlands

The applicants claim that the Court should:

The applicant also pleads a manifest disregard for the limits of
the discretion of the Council and the Commission, relying on
five pleas alleging:

— Declare the application for annulment admissible and well

founded;

— introduction of a law which favours anti-competitive prac-

tices;

— Order the defendant to pay the costs.

— absence of measures intended to counter those anti-compe-

titive effects;

— infringement of the principles of the protection of legiti-

mate expectations and legal certainty;

Pleas in law and main arguments

— infringement of the principle of non-discrimination and

— infringement of the principle of freedom to pursue a trade

or profession.

The applicants seek annulment of the Commission Decision of
21 December 2004 declaring a concentration compatible with
the common market (Case No IV/M.3605 — SOVION/HMG).

The applicant further relies on an infringement of Articles 81
EC and 82 EC by the operators.

The applicants submit that the Commission has infringed Arti-
cles 2, 6 and 8 of Council Regulation (EC) No 139/2004 of 20
January 2004 on the control of concentrations between under-
takings (1) (the EC Merger Regulation). In the applicants' view,
the Commission unlawfully decided that the proposed concen-
tration gave rise to no problems for competition on the market
for the purchase of live pigs and sows for slaughter and that no
dominant position arose on the relevant market.
In that
connection the applicants claim that in certain recitals to the
contested decision the Commission applied a distorted defini-
tion of the relevant product market by including the market for
sows in the market
In the applicants' view the
for pigs.
Commission defined the geographical market incorrectly.

Action brought on 14 April 2005 by Nederlandse
Vakbond Varkenshouders and Others v Commission of
the European Communities

(Case T-151/05)

(2005/C 171/40)

The applicants also claim an infringement of
the duty to
provide a statement of reasons and of due care. According to
the applicants the Commission gave the applicants insufficient
opportunity to clarify their views and disregarded the informa-
tion supplied by them.

(Language of the case: Dutch)

(1) OJ 2004 L 24, p. 1.

An action against the Commission of the European Commu-
nities was brought on 14 April 2005 by the Nederlandse