Case C-404/10 P: Judgment of the Court (Third Chamber) of 28 June 2012 — European Commission v Éditions Odile Jacob SAS, Lagardère SCA (Appeals — Access to documents of the institutions — Regulation (EC) No 1049/2001 — Documents relating to merger control proceedings — Regulations (EEC) No 4064/89 and (EC) No 139/2004 — Refusal to grant access — Exceptions relating to the protection of investigations, commercial interests, legal advice and the decision-making process of the institutions — Duty of the institution concerned to carry out a concrete, individual examination of the content of the documents covered by the application for access)
Date: 2012-06-28
Institutions: Court of Justice
Subjects: access to EU information, consultancy, economic concentration, merger control, research








C_2012258EN.01000301.xml










25.8.2012   


EN


Official Journal of the European Union


C 258/3





Judgment of the Court (Third Chamber) of 28 June 2012 — European Commission v Éditions Odile Jacob SAS, Lagardère SCA
(Case C-404/10 P) (1)

(Appeals - Access to documents of the institutions - Regulation (EC) No 1049/2001 - Documents relating to merger control proceedings - Regulations (EEC) No 4064/89 and (EC) No 139/2004 - Refusal to grant access - Exceptions relating to the protection of investigations, commercial interests, legal advice and the decision-making process of the institutions - Duty of the institution concerned to carry out a concrete, individual examination of the content of the documents covered by the application for access)
2012/C 258/04
Language of the case: French

Parties


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

Interveners in support of the applicant: Czech Republic (represented by: M. Smolek and D. Hadroušek, acting as Agents), French Republic (represented by: J. Gstalter, acting as Agent)

Other parties to the proceedings: Éditions Odile Jacob SAS (represented by: O. Fréget and L. Eskenazi, avocats), Lagardère SCA (represented by: A. Winckler, F. de Bure and J.-B. Pinçon, avocats)

Interveners in support of Éditions Odile Jacob SAS: Kingdom of Denmark (represented by: S. Juul Jørgensen and C. Vang, acting as Agents), Kingdom of Sweden (represented by: K. Petkovska, acting as Agent)

Re:

Appeal against the judgment of the General Court (Sixth Chamber) of 9 June 2010, Éditions Jacob v Commission (T-237/05), annulling the Commission’s decision of 7 April 2005 (D(2005) 3286), to the extent that it refuses the appellant access to the documents concerning the merger control proceedings COMP/M.2978 Lagardère/Natexis/VUP — Documents relating to merger control procedures — Exception relating to the protection of the purpose of investigations — Duty of the institution concerned to carry out a concrete, individual examination of the content of the documents covered by the application for access

Operative part of the judgment

The Court:






1.


Sets aside paragraphs 2 to 6 of the operative part of the judgment of the General Court of the European Union in Case T-237/05 Éditions Jacob v Commission;










2.


Dismisses the cross-appeal;










3.


Dismisses the action brought before the General Court of the European Union seeking annulment of Commission Decision D(2005) 3286 of 7 April 2005, dismissing the application of Éditions Odile Jacob SAS for access to documents relating to merger control procedure COMP/M.2978 — Lagardère/Natexis/VUP;










4.


Orders Éditions Odile Jacob SAS to bear its own costs and pay those incurred by the Commission and Lagardère both at first instance and on appeal;










5.


Orders the Czech Republic, the Kingdom of Denmark, the French Republic and the Kingdom of Sweden to bear their own costs.






(1)  OJ C 274, 9.10.2010.