CELEX: C2002/131/38
Language: en
Date: 2002-06-01 00:00:00
Title: Case T-62/02: Action brought on 1 March 2002 by Waardals AS against the Commission of the European Communities

C 131/20                EN                    Official Journal of the European Communities                                         1.6.2002
Action brought on 1 March 2002 by Waardals AS against                    —     that the Commission incorrectly calculated the fine and
       the Commission of the European Communities                              incorrectly applied the Guidelines on the method of
                                                                               setting fines. On this point, the applicant states that the
                                                                               fine was increased on the basis of the duration of the
                           (Case T-62/02)                                      infringement and because of the fact that the Commission
                                                                               did not differentiate between the members of the cartel
                          (2002/C 131/38)                                      in an appropriate manner. Moreover, the Commission
                                                                               has not taken into account that the applicant was invited
                                                                               to join a cartel that already existed, and that it never was
                   (Language of the case: English)                             part of the ‘inner circle’, nor has the Commission taken
                                                                               into account that Waardals implemented the agreements
                                                                               in question only to a very slight degree. In setting the
                                                                               fines, the defendant consequently infringed the principles
An action against the Commission of the European Communi-                      of equal treatment and proportionality and misapplied
ties was brought before the Court of First Instance of the                     the Guidelines mentioned above.
European Communities on 1 March 2002 by Waardals AS,
represented by Mr Trygve Olavson Laake and Mr Jan Magne
Langseth of Advokatfirmaet Schjødt AS, Stavanger (Norway).
The applicant claims that the Court should:
—     annul Article 1 of the Decision in so far as it concerns the
      applicant, or, in the alternative, reduce the duration of
      the infringement in so far as it concerns the applicant;           Action brought on 4 March 2002 by Maria Concetta
                                                                         Cerafogli and Paolo Poloni against European Central Bank
—     annul the fine imposed upon the applicant by Article 3(f)
      of the Decision, or, in the alternative, substantially reduce
      the amount of the fine imposed;                                                              (Case T-63/02)
—     grant its request for measures of organisation of pro-
      cedure including the summoning and hearing of witnesses                                     (2002/C 131/39)
      and access to the Commission’s report from the Hearing;
                                                                                            (Language of the case: German)
—     order the Commission to pay the costs.
Pleas in law and main arguments                                          An action against the European Central Bank was brought
                                                                         before the Court of First Instance of the European Communities
                                                                         on 4 March 2002 by Maria Concetta Cerafogli and Paolo
The Decision which is challenged in this case is the same as             Poloni, of Frankfurt am Main, represented by Boris Karthaus,
that in Case T-33/02 Britannia Alloys & Chemicals -v-                    Christian Roth and Tanja Raab-Rhein, lawyers, with an address
Commission. The grounds and main arguments are similar to                for service in Luxembourg.
those raised in that case.
                                                                         The applicants claim that the Court should:
In particular, the applicant submits:
                                                                         1.    Annul the statements of earnings issued to the applicants
—     that the Commission has based its calculation of the fine                for the month of July 2001;
      on an incorrect assessment of the evidence and facts of
      the case. Firstly, the Commission found that all addressees
      of the Decision committed an infringement of the                   2.    Order the defendant to issue the applicants with state-
      same duration, 4 years and 1 month. In so doing, the                     ments of earnings on the basis of an annual salary
      Commission should have not taken into account that                       adjustment of at least 2,7 % in the month of July 2001;
      Waardals’ infringement ceased between April 1995 and
      August 1995. The defendant should have ignored the
      fact that the applicant withdrew from the cartel and               3.    In the alternative, order the defendant to issue the
      terminated its infringements immediately following the                   applicants with statements of earnings in accordance with
      investigations.                                                          the view of the law taken by the Court;