Case C-522/15 P: Appeal brought on 28 September 2015 by the European Commission against the judgment of the General Court (Sixth Chamber) of 15 July 2015 in Joined Cases T-389/10 and T-419/10
Date: 2015-09-28
Institutions: Court of Justice
Subjects: cartel, fine, market-sharing agreement, price agreement, steel, subsidiary








C_2015406EN.01002601.xml










7.12.2015   


EN


Official Journal of the European Union


C 406/26






Appeal brought on 28 September 2015 by the European Commission against the judgment of the General Court (Sixth Chamber) of 15 July 2015 in Joined Cases T-389/10 and T-419/10
(Case C-522/15 P)
(2015/C 406/26)
Language of the case: Italian

Parties


Appellant: European Commission (represented by: P. Rossi, V. Bottka, acting as Agents)

Other parties to the proceedings: Siderurgica Latina Martin SpA (SLM), Ori Martin SA

Form of order sought

The Commission claims that the Court should:






(i)


set aside the judgment under appeal in so far as the General Court reduced the basic amount of the fine imposed on SLM, on the grounds that the General Court, in the contested decision, failed to take account of the fact that, for part of the infringement, SLM had not participated in the external aspect of Club Italia;










(ii)


set aside the judgment under in so far as the General Court reduced the basic amount of the fine imposed on SLM to EUR 1,956 million and annulled the fine imposed on SLM jointly and severally with Ori Martin;










(iii)


exercising its own unlimited jurisdiction, recalculate the amount of the fine to be imposed, in accordance with that requested by the Commission;










(iv)


order the applicants at first instance to pay the costs of the proceedings.





Grounds of appeal and main arguments







(i)


The General Court fundamentally misread the facts by erroneously considering that the basic amount of the fine imposed by the contested decision against SLM was EUR 19,8 million, instead of EUR 15,965 million as determined by the second corrective decision, EUR 14 million of which was imposed jointly and severally with Ori Martin.










(ii)


The General Court erred in law in its application of the rules on joint and several liability for fines and in the calculation of the 10 % ceiling, in so far as it fixed the final amount of the fine for which SLM is liable at EUR 1,956 million by applying the legal limit of 10 % of SLM’s worldwide turnover in the reference year mentioned in Article 23(2) of Regulation (EC) No 1/2003. (1) In the present case, the General Court ought to have found, in the judgment, that SLM was liable, not only individually for the payment of EUR 1,956 million, but for an additional sum of EUR 13,3 million too, jointly and severally with Ori Martin. The ceilings ought to have been calculated separately for SLM, individually, for the period when it participated in the infringement during which it was not controlled by Ori Martin (the ceiling relating to the SLM’s worldwide turnover), and for SLM jointly and severally with Ori Martin, for the period in which that subsidiary was controlled by its parent (the ceiling relating to Ori Martin’s worldwide turnover, which in the present case was not reached).






(1)  Council Regulation (EC) No 1/2003 of 16 December 2002 on the implementation of the rules on competition laid down in Articles 81 and 82 (OJ 2003 L 1, p. 1)