Case C-477/10 P: Judgment of the Court (Third Chamber) of 28 June 2012 — European Commission v Agrofert Holding a.s., Polski Koncern Naftowy Orlen SA, Kingdom of Denmark, Republic of Finland, Kingdom of Sweden (Appeal — Access to documents of the institutions — Regulation (EC) No 1049/2001 — Documents relating to merger control proceedings — Regulation (EC) No 139/2004 — Refusal of access — Exceptions relating to the protection of the purpose of investigations, commercial interests, legal advice and the decision-making process of the institutions)
Date: 2012-06-28
Institutions: Court of Justice
Subjects: access to EU information, consultancy, economic concentration, merger control, research








C_2012258EN.01000401.xml










25.8.2012   


EN


Official Journal of the European Union


C 258/4





Judgment of the Court (Third Chamber) of 28 June 2012 — European Commission v Agrofert Holding a.s., Polski Koncern Naftowy Orlen SA, Kingdom of Denmark, Republic of Finland, Kingdom of Sweden
(Case C-477/10 P) (1)

(Appeal - Access to documents of the institutions - Regulation (EC) No 1049/2001 - Documents relating to merger control proceedings - Regulation (EC) No 139/2004 - Refusal of access - Exceptions relating to the protection of the purpose of investigations, commercial interests, legal advice and the decision-making process of the institutions)
2012/C 258/05
Language of the case: English

Parties


Appellant: European Commission (represented by: B. Smulders, P. Costa de Oliveira and V. Bottka, acting as Agents)

Other parties to the proceedings: Agrofert Holding a.s. (represented by: R. Pokorný and D. Šalek, advokáti), Polski Koncern Naftowy Orlen SA (represented by: S. Sołtysiński, K. Michałowska and A. Krasowska Skowrońska, lawyers), Kingdom of Denmark (represented by: S. Juul Jørgensen, Agent), Republic of Finland, Kingdom of Sweden (represented by: K. Petkovska and S. Johannesson, Agents)

Re:

Appeal against the judgment of the General Court (First Chamber) of 7 July 2010 in Case T-111/07 Arofert Holding a.s. v Commission, by which that Court annulled Commission Decision D(2007) 1360 of 13 February 2007, refusing to grant the applicant access to certain unpublished documents relating to a procedure concerning a merger between undertakings (Case COMP/M.3543 — PKN Orlen v Unipetrol)

Operative part of the judgment

The Court:






1.


Annuls paragraph 2 of the operative part of the judgment of the General Court of the European Union of 7 July 2010 in Case T-111/07 Agrofert Holding v Commission in so far as it annuls Commission Decision D(2007) 1360 of 13 February 2007 refusing access to the documents of Case COMP/M.3543 concerning the merger between Polski Koncern Naftowy Orlen SA and Unipetrol, exchanged between the Commission and the notifying parties and between the Commission and third parties;










2.


Annuls paragraph 3 of the operative part of that judgment;










3.


Dismisses the appeal as to the remainder;










4.


Dismisses the action brought by Agrofert Holding a.s. before the General Court of the European Union seeking the annulment of Commission Decision D(2007) 1360 of 13 February 2007 refusing access to the documents in Case COMP/M.3543 concerning the merger between Polski Koncern Naftowy Orlen SA and Unipetrol, exchanged between the Commission and the notifying parties and between the Commission and the third parties;










5.


Orders the European Commission and Agrofert Holding a.s. to bear their own costs both at first instance and in this appeal;










6.


Orders Polski Koncern Naftowy Orlen SA and the Kingdom of Sweden to bear their own costs.






(1)  OJ C 328 4.12.2010.