CELEX: 62005TJ0036
Language: en
Date: 2007-09-12
Title: Judgment of the Court of First Instance (Second Chamber) of 12 September 2007. # Coats Holdings Ltd and J & P Coats Ltd v Commission of the European Communities. # Competition - Cartels - European haberdashery market (needles) - Product market sharing - Geographic market sharing - Assessment of evidence - Participation in meetings - Tripartite agreement - Fine - Gravity and duration of the infringement - Attenuating circumstances. # Case T-36/05.

Judgment of the Court of First Instance (Second Chamber) of 12 September 2007 – Coats Holdings and Coats v Commission
      (Case T-36/05)
      Competition – Cartels – European haberdashery market (needles) – Product market sharing – Geographic market sharing – Assessment of evidence – Participation in meetings – Tripartite agreement – Fine – Gravity and duration of the infringement – Attenuating circumstances
      1.                     Competition – Administrative procedure – Commission decision finding an infringement consisting in the conclusion of an anti‑competitive
            agreement – Compliance with the principle of the presumption on innocence – Degree of probative force required for the Commission’s
            evidence (Art. 81(1) EC) (see paras 68, 70-72, 74)
      2.                     Competition – Agreements, decisions and concerted practices – Participation of an undertaking in a meeting of the parties
            to a planned cartel – Circumstance permitting the conclusion that it participated in the subsequent cartel – Condition (Art.
            81(1) EC) (see paras 90-91, 96)
      3.                     Competition – Agreements, decisions and concerted practices – Undertaking which facilitated the entry into force of an anti‑competitive
            agreement which required action on its part – Circumstance permitting the conclusion that it participated in the agreement
            – Merely being informed of the existence of the agreement not sufficient (Art. 81(1) EC) (see paras 105, 110, 117, 119-120,
            168)
      4.                     Competition – Fines – Amount – Determination – Criteria defined in guidelines issued by the Commission – Seriousness and duration
            of the infringement – Attenuating circumstances – Passive or ‘follow-my-leader’ role of the undertaking (Art. 81(1) EC; Commission
            Notice 98/C 9/03) (see paras 199-200, 204-207, 210, 212)
      Re: 
      
         
               APPLICATION, principally, for annulment of Commission Decision C(2004) 4221 final of 26 October 2004 relating to a proceeding
                  under Article 81 [EC] (Case COMP/F-1/38.338 – PO/Needles) and, in the alternative, for annulment or reduction of the fine
                  imposed on the applicants.
               
            Operative part
      The Court:
      
         
                  1.
               
               
                  
               
               
                  	Annuls Commission Decision C(2004) 4221 final of 26 October 2004 relating to a proceeding under Article 81 [EC] (Case COMP/F‑1/38.338
                     – PO/Needles) in so far as the Decision finds that the applicants infringed Article 81(1) EC after 13 March 1997;
                  
               
            
         
                  2.
               
               
                  
               
               
                  	Sets the amount of the fine imposed on the applicants under Article 2 of the Decision at EUR 20 million;
               
            
         
                  3.
               
               
                  
               
               
                  	Dismisses the remainder of the application;
               
            
         
                  4.
               
               
                  
               
               
                  	Orders the applicants to bear two thirds of their own costs and to pay two thirds of the costs incurred by the Commission,
                     and the Commission to bear one third of its own costs and to pay one third of the costs incurred by the applicants.