Communication from the Commission — Amendments to the Commission Notice on Immunity from fines and reduction of fines in cartel cases
Date: 2015-08-05
Institutions: European Commission
Subjects: competition law, fine, infringement of EU law, inter-company agreement, restriction on competition, unlawful agreement








C_2015256EN.01000101.xml










5.8.2015   


EN


Official Journal of the European Union


C 256/1





COMMUNICATION FROM THE COMMISSION
Amendments to the Commission Notice on Immunity from fines and reduction of fines in cartel cases
(2015/C 256/01)






1.


The Notice on Immunity from fines and reduction of fines in cartel cases (1) is hereby amended as follows.










2.


Point 34 is replaced by the following text:






‘34.


In accordance with the Commission Notice on rules for access to the Commission file (2), access to the file is only granted to the addressees of a statement of objections on the condition that the information thereby obtained may only be used for the purposes of judicial or administrative proceedings for the application of the Union competition rules. Any failure during the proceedings to comply with the provisions of Regulation (EC) No 773/2004 (3) on the use of information obtained through access to the file may be regarded as lack of cooperation within the meaning of points (12) and (27) of this Notice. Under certain circumstances it is subject to penalties to be laid down under national law (4). Moreover, if any such use is made after the Commission has already adopted a prohibition decision in the proceedings, the Commission may, in addition to applicable penalties under national law, in any legal proceedings before the Union Courts, ask the Court to increase the fine in respect of the responsible undertaking. Should any of the above limitations to the use of information be breached, at any point in time, with the involvement of an outside counsel, the Commission may report the incident to the bar of that counsel, with a view to disciplinary action.





(2)  OJ C 325, 22.12.2005, p. 7."
						

(3)  Article 16a of Regulation (EC) No 773/2004, as amended by Commission Regulation (EU) 2015/1348 (OJ L 208, 5.8.2015, p. 3)"
						

(4)  Articles 7 and 8 of Directive 2014/104/EU of the European Parliament and of the Council of 26 November 2014 on certain rules governing actions for damages under national law for infringements of the competition law provisions of the Member States and of the European Union (OJ L 349, 5.12.2014, p. 1).’."
						










3.


The following point 35a will be inserted after point 35:






‘35a.


In line with paragraph 26a of the Commission Notice on the co-operation between the Commission and the courts of the EU Member States in the application of Articles 101 and 102 of the Treaty, the Commission will not at any time transmit leniency corporate statements to national courts for use in actions for damages for breaches of those Treaty provisions (5). This paragraph is without prejudice to the situation referred to in Article 6(7) of Directive 2014/104/EU.





(5)  Commission Notice on the co-operation between the Commission and the courts of the EU Member States in the application of Articles 101 and 102 TFEU (OJ C 101, 27.4.2004, p. 54), as amended by the Communication from the Commission on Amendments to the Commission Notice on the cooperation between the Commission and courts of the EU Member States in the application of Articles 81 and 82 EC (OJ C 256, 5.8.2015, p. 5)’."
						






(1)  OJ C 298, 8.12.2006, p. 17.