CELEX: 62003TJ0053
Language: en
Date: 2008-07-08
Title: Judgment of the Court of First Instance (Third Chamber) of 8 July 2008. # BPB plc v Commission of the European Communities. # Competition - Cartels - Plasterboard market - Decision finding an infringement of Article 81 EC - Single and continuous infringement - Repeated infringement - Fine - Guidelines on the method of setting fines - Leniency Notice. # Case T-53/03.

Case T-53/03
      BPB plc
      v
      Commission of the European Communities
      (Competition – Cartels – Plasterboard market – Decision finding an infringement of Article 81 EC – Single and continuous infringement – Repeated infringement – Fine – Guidelines on the method of setting fines – Leniency Notice)
      Summary of the Judgment
      1.      Competition – Administrative procedure – Observance of  the rights of the defence – Access to the file – Obligation to make
            the entire file available – Limits 
      (Art. 81(1) EC)
      2.      Competition – Administrative procedure – Observance of  the rights of the defence – Access to the file – Scope – Refusal to
            communicate an inculpatory document – Consequences in terms of the burden of proof on the undertaking concerned 
      (Art. 81(1) EC)
      3.      Competition – Agreements, decisions and concerted practices – Proof – Proof adduced by a number of indicia and coincidences
            
      (Art. 81(1) EC)
      4.      Competition – Agreements, decisions and concerted practices – Adverse effect on competition – Criteria for assessment – Anti-competitive
            object  – Sufficient finding
      (Art. 81(1) EC)
      5.      Competition – Agreements, decisions and concerted practices – Adverse effect on competition – Agreement creating an information
            exchange system – Not permissible on an oligopolistic market – Rebuttable presumption
      (Art. 81(1) EC)
      6.      Competition – Agreements, decisions and concerted practices – Concerted practice – Concept – Parallel conduct – Presumption
            of concerted practice – Limits
      (Art. 81(1) EC)
      7.      Competition – Agreements, decisions and concerted practices – Concerted practice – Concept – Coordination and cooperation
            incompatible with the obligation for each undertaking to determine independently its conduct on the market – Receipt by an
            operator of information from a competitor relating to the competitor’s future conduct on the market  
      (Art. 81(1) EC)
      8.      Competition – Agreements, decisions and concerted practices – Agreements and concerted practices constituting a single infringement
            – Undertakings that may be held responsible for participating in an overall cartel – Criteria
      (Art. 81(1) EC)
      9.      Competition – Agreements, decisions and concerted practices – Agreements and concerted practices constituting a single infringement
            – Evidence – Evidence adduced by a number of different manifestations of the infringement – Whether permissible 
      (Art. 81(1) EC)
      10.    Competition – Fines – Amount – Determination – Criteria – Gravity of the infringement – Horizontal cartel concerning prices
            – Very serious infringement
      (Council Regulation No 17, Art. 15(2); Commission Notice 98/C 9/03, Section 1 A)
      11.    Competition – Fines – Amount – Determination – Criteria – Actual impact on the market
      (Council Regulation No 17, Art. 15(2); Commission Notice 98/C 9/03, Section 1 A, first para.)
      12.    Competition – Fines – Decision imposing fines – Obligation to state the reasons on which the decision is based – Scope – Indication
            of the factors which led the Commission to assess the gravity and the duration of the infringement – Sufficient indication
      (Art. 253 EC; Council Regulation No 17, Art. 15(2))
      13.    Competition – Fines – Amount – Determination – Need to take account of the turnover of the undertakings involved in the same
            infringement or in similar previous infringements and to ensure that fines are proportionate to those figures – No such requirement
            
      (Council Regulation No 17, Art. 15(2))
      14.    Competition – Community rules – Infringements – Attribution – Legal person responsible for the operation of the undertaking
            at the time of the infringement 
      (Art. 81 EC)
      15.    Competition – Fines – Amount – Determination – Criteria – Duration of the infringement – Taking into account of partial years
            – Whether permissible 
      (Council Regulation No 17, Art. 15(2); Commission Notice 98/C 9/03, Section 1 B)
      16.    Competition – Fines – Amount – Determination – Criteria – Duration of the infringement – Infringements of long duration –
            Automatic increase of 10% of the starting amount per year – Discretion of the Commission 
      (Council Regulation No 17, Art. 15(2); Commission Notice 98/C 9/03, Section 1 B, first para.)
      17.    Competition – Fines – Amount – Determination – Criteria – Duration of the infringement – Increase of the starting amount of
            the fine – Taking into account of different levels of intensity of the infringement – Not included 
      (Council Regulation No 17, Art. 15(2); Commission Notice 98/C 9/03, Section 1 B)
      18.    Competition – Fines – Amount – Determination – Criteria – Gravity of the infringement – Aggravating circumstances – Repeated
            infringement – Concept
      (Council Regulation No 17, Art. 15(2); Commission Notice 98/C 9/03)
      19.    Competition – Fines – Amount – Determination – Criteria – Gravity of the infringement – Aggravating circumstances – Repeated
            infringement – Rate of increase of the basic amount of the fine 
      (Council Regulation No 17, Art. 15(2); Commission Notice 98/C 9/03)
      20.    Competition – Fines – Amount – Determination – Criteria – Gravity of the infringement – Attenuating circumstances – Setting
            up of a programme for compliance with Community competition rules – Taking into account not mandatory 
      (Art. 81(1) EC; Council Regulation No 17, Art. 15)
      21.    Competition – Fines – Amount – Determination – Criteria – Taking into account of the undertaking’s cooperation outside the
            framework of the Leniency Notice – Conditions
      (Council Regulation No 17, Art. 17; Commission Notices 96/C 207/04 and 98/C 9/03, Section 3)
      22.    Competition – Fines – Amount – Determination – Criteria – Gravity of the infringement – Attenuating circumstances – Termination
            of the infringement after the Commission’s intervention – Conditions
      (Council Regulation No 17, Art. 15(2); Commission Notice 98/C 9/03, Section 3)
      23.    Competition – Fines – Imposition – Requirement that the undertaking benefited from the infringement – No such requirement
      (Council Regulation No 17, Art. 15(2); Commission Notice 98/C 9/03, Section 2)
      24.    Competition – Fines – Amount – Determination – Non-imposition or reduction of the fine for cooperation of the undertaking
            concerned – Need for conduct which facilitated the Commission’s finding of an infringement – Reply to a request for information
            – Not included
      (Council Regulation No 17, Arts 11(1), (2), (4) and (5) and 15(2); Commission Notice 96/C 207/04)
      25.    Actions for annulment – Judgment annulling a measure – Effects – Obligation to adopt measures to comply with the judgment
            
      (Art. 233 EC) 
      1.      Even if the Commission has an obligation to make available to the undertakings involved in proceedings under Article 81(1)
         EC all documents, whether in their favour or otherwise, which it has obtained during the course of the investigation, that
         obligation does not extend to business secrets of other undertakings, the internal documents of the Commission or other confidential
         information. Thus, in the case of information supplied on a purely voluntary basis, accompanied by a request for confidentiality
         in order to protect the informant’s anonymity, an institution which accepts such information is bound to comply with such
         a condition. The Commission’s ability to guarantee the anonymity of certain of its sources of information is of crucial importance
         with a view to ensuring the effective prevention of prohibited anti‑competitive practices. Proceedings initiated on the basis
         of information from an undisclosed source are lawful, provided that this does not affect the opportunity for the undertaking
         concerned to make known its views on the truth or implication of the facts, on the documents communicated or on the conclusions
         drawn by the Commission from them.
      
      (see paras 36-37)
      2.      If the Commission wishes to rely on a passage in a reply to a statement of objections or on a document annexed to such a reply
         in order to prove the existence of an infringement in a proceeding under Article 81(1) EC, the other undertakings involved
         in that proceeding must be placed in a position in which they can express their views on such evidence. In such circumstances
         the passage in question from a reply to the statement of objections or the document annexed thereto constitutes evidence against
         the various parties alleged to have participated in the infringement.
      
      Since documents that have not been communicated to the undertakings concerned during the administrative procedure are not
         admissible evidence, it will be necessary to exclude those documents as evidence if it should prove that the Commission relied
         in the Decision on documents that were not in the investigation file and were not communicated to the undertakings concerned.
      
      If there is other documentary evidence of which the undertakings concerned were aware during the administrative procedure
         that specifically supports the Commission’s findings, the fact that an incriminating document not communicated to the person
         concerned is inadmissible as evidence does not affect the validity of the objections upheld in the contested decision.
      
      It is thus for the undertaking concerned to show that the result at which the Commission arrived in its decision would have
         been different if a document which was not communicated to that undertaking and on which the Commission relied to make a finding
         of infringement against it had to be disallowed as evidence.
      
      (see paras 41, 43-45)
      3.      Where there is a dispute as to the existence of an infringement of the competition rules, it is incumbent on the Commission
         to adduce evidence capable of demonstrating to the requisite legal standard the existence of circumstances constituting an
         infringement. The Commission must establish in particular all the facts enabling the conclusion to be drawn that an undertaking
         participated in such an infringement and that it was responsible for the various aspects of it.
      
      When the infringement involves anti-competitive agreements and concerted practices, the Commission must, in particular, show
         that the undertaking intended to contribute by its own conduct to the common objectives pursued by all the participants and
         that it was aware of the actual conduct planned or put into effect by other undertakings in pursuit of the same objectives
         or that it could reasonably have foreseen it and that it was prepared to take the risk. It is normal, in the context of anti‑competitive
         practices and agreements, for the activities to take place in a clandestine fashion, for meetings to be held in secret, and
         for the associated documentation to be reduced to a minimum. It follows that, even if the Commission discovers evidence explicitly
         showing unlawful contact between operators, it will normally be only fragmentary and sparse, so that it is often necessary
         to reconstitute certain details by deduction. Accordingly, in most cases, the existence of an anti-competitive practice or
         agreement but also, as the case may be, the single and continuous nature of the infringement, must be inferred from a number
         of coincidences and indicia which, taken together, may, in the absence of another plausible explanation, constitute evidence
         of an infringement of the competition rules. Furthermore, although the content of an isolated document found by the Commission
         may not unequivocally disclose the existence of anti-competitive conduct and so might possibly be explained otherwise than
         by a wish to restrict competition, that fact cannot preclude that document from being interpreted as corroborating the existence
         of such a wish when it is one of a series of other documents which provide reliable indicia of the existence of contemporaneous
         and similar anti-competitive conduct.
      
      The Commission cannot therefore be required to adduce proof of the existence of the infringement ‘beyond reasonable doubt’.
      (see paras 61-64, 210, 227, 249)
      4.      For the purposes of applying Article 81(1) EC, it is sufficient that the object of an agreement should be to restrict, prevent
         or distort competition irrespective of the actual effects of that agreement. Consequently, in the case of agreements reached
         at meetings of competing undertakings, that provision is infringed where those meetings have such an object and are thus intended
         to organise artificially the operation of the market. That is the case, for example, where two undertakings express their
         common intention to put an end to a price war and to stabilise the markets in question. 
      
      In such a case, the liability of a particular undertaking in the infringement is properly established where it participated
         in those meetings with knowledge of their object, even if it did not proceed to implement any of the measures agreed at those
         meetings. The greater or lesser degree of regular participation by the undertaking in the meetings and of completeness of
         its implementation of the measures agreed is relevant not to the establishment of its liability but rather to the extent of
         that liability and thus to the severity of the penalty. Undertakings which conclude an agreement whose purpose is to restrict
         competition cannot, in principle, avoid the application of Article 81(1) EC by claiming that their agreement was not intended
         to have an appreciable effect on competition.
      
      (see paras 83-84, 87, 90)
      5.      Agreements on the exchange of information are incompatible with the rules on competition if they reduce or remove the degree
         of uncertainty as to the operation of the market in question with the result that competition between undertakings is restricted.
      
      It is inherent in the Treaty provisions on competition that every economic operator must determine autonomously the policy
         which it intends to pursue on the common market. Thus, such a requirement of autonomy precludes any direct or indirect contact
         between economic operators of such a kind as either to influence the conduct on the market of an actual or potential competitor
         or to reveal to such a competitor the conduct which an operator has decided to follow itself or contemplates adopting on the
         market, where the object or effect of those contacts is to give rise to conditions of competition which do not correspond
         to the normal conditions of the market in question, taking into account the nature of the products or the services provided,
         the size and number of the undertakings and also the volume of the market.
      
      On a truly competitive market, the fact that an economic operator takes into account information on the operation of the market,
         made available to it under an information exchange system, in order to adjust its conduct on the market, is not likely, having
         regard to the atomised nature of the supply, to reduce or remove for the other operators all uncertainty about the foreseeable
         nature of its competitors’ conduct. However, on a highly concentrated oligopolistic market, the exchange of information on
         the market is such as to enable operators to know the market positions and strategies of their competitors and thus to impair
         appreciably the competition which exists between the operators.
      
      Subject to proof to the contrary, which the operators concerned must adduce, the presumption must be that the undertakings
         taking part in the concerted arrangements and remaining active on the market take account of the information exchanged with
         their competitors when determining their conduct on that market. That is all the more the case where the undertakings concert
         together on a regular basis over a long period.
      
      (see paras 106-109, 180-184, 313)
      6.      Parallel conduct cannot be regarded as furnishing proof of concertation unless concertation constitutes the only plausible
         explanation for such conduct. Although Article 81 EC prohibits any form of collusion which distorts competition, it does not
         deprive economic operators of the right to adapt themselves intelligently to the existing and anticipated conduct of their
         competitors.
      
      Where the Commission finds that several undertakings agreed to put an end to a price war on several European markets, the
         near-simultaneity of the price rise announcements and the parallelism of the prices announced amount to strong evidence of
         prior concertation designed to inform the competing undertakings of the price rises, even if the intervals between the various
         price rise announcements may have enabled the undertakings to ascertain those price rises by information from the market and
         even if those rises were not always exactly of the same level.
      
      (see paras 143-144)
      7.      The receipt of information by an undertaking from a competitor concerning the latter’s future conduct on the market constitutes
         a concerted practice which is prohibited by Article 81(1) EC, even if it is purely unilateral conduct. Whilst it is true that
         the concept of concerted practice does in fact imply the existence of reciprocal contacts between competitors, that condition
         is however met where the disclosure by one competitor to another of its future intentions or conduct on the market is requested
         or, at the very least, accepted by the latter. The latter, through the receipt of such information, which he cannot fail to
         take into account, directly or indirectly, eliminates in advance uncertainty about the future conduct of the former, whereas
         each economic operator must determine independently the commercial policy which he intends to adopt on the market.
      
      That is also the case when the information in question is already known by customers before it is transmitted to the competitor
         and, therefore, can be collected on the market. The fact that that price information is sent directly allows the competitor
         to become aware of that information more simply, rapidly and directly than it would via the market and makes it possible to
         create a climate of mutual certainty as to its future conduct.
      
      (see paras 153-154, 231-236)
      8.      An infringement of Article 81(1) EC may result not only from an isolated act but also from a series of acts or from continuous
         conduct. The notion of a single infringement covers precisely a situation in which several undertakings participated in an
         infringement in which continuous conduct in pursuit of a single economic aim was intended to distort competition, and also
         individual infringements linked to one another by the same object (all the elements sharing the same purpose) and the same
         subjects (the same undertakings, who are aware that they are participating in the common object). That interpretation cannot
         be challenged on the ground that one or several elements of that series of acts or continuous conduct could also constitute,
         in themselves and in isolation, an infringement of that provision. When the different actions form part of an overall plan
         because their identical object distorts competition within the common market, the Commission is entitled to impute responsibility
         for those actions on the basis of participation in the infringement considered as a whole. It would then be artificial to
         split up such continuous conduct, characterised by a single purpose, by treating it as consisting of several separate infringements.
         The infringement constitutes a single infringement by virtue of the identical nature of the objective pursued by each participant
         in the cartel, not by virtue of the methods of implementing it.
      
      Thus, the mere fact that each undertaking participates in the infringement in forms specific to it does not affect the categorisation
         of the infringement as a single and continuous infringement. Even if the agreements and concerted practices referred to in
         Article 81(1) EC necessarily result from collaboration by several undertakings who are all co‑perpetrators of the infringement,
         their participation can take different forms according, in particular, to the characteristics of the market concerned and
         the position of each undertaking on that market, the aims pursued and the means of implementation chosen or envisaged.
      
      Similarly, in the context of an overall agreement extending over several years, a gap of several months between the manifestations
         of the cartel is immaterial. The fact that the various actions form part of an overall plan owing to their identical object,
         on the other hand, is decisive.
      
      Lastly, the fact that the number and intensity of the collusive practices varies according to the market concerned does not
         mean that the infringement does not concern the markets on which the practices are less intense and less numerous. 
      
      All those factors must be taken into consideration only when the gravity of the infringement is assessed and if and when it
         comes to determining the amount of the fine.
      
      (see paras 240, 252, 255-260)
      9.      Just as, in most cases, the existence of an anti‑competitive practice or agreement must be inferred from a number of coincidences
         and indicia which, taken together, may, in the absence of another plausible explanation, constitute evidence of an infringement
         of the competition rules, where there is a complex, single and continuous infringement of those rules, each of the various
         manifestations of the infringement corroborates the actual occurrence of such an infringement. Thus, the various manifestations
         of the infringement must be assessed in the overall context explaining the reason for their existence. It is not a question
         then of circular reasoning but of evaluation of evidence, in which the evidential value of various facts is corroborated or
         weakened by other facts, which, taken as a whole, may show that there has been a single infringement.
      
      (see paras 249-250)
      10.    In setting the amount of the fines for breach of the Community competition rules, the gravity of an infringement is to be
         assessed by taking into account, in particular, the nature of the restrictions on competition, which constitutes the essential
         criterion in this respect even if the size of the geographic market concerned and the impact on the market, when measurable,
         must also be taken into account. A horizontal price cartel can be correctly classified by the Commission as very serious,
         having regard to its nature. 
      
      That classification cannot be called in question either by the fact that the impact of the cartel on the market was limited
         or by the fact, assuming that this is correct, that the Commission reduced for that reason the amounts of fines in other decisions,
         since, first, factors relating to the object of a course of conduct may be more significant for the purposes of setting the
         amount of the fine than those relating to its effects, and, second, the Commission’s previous decision-making practice does
         not in itself serve as a legal framework for fines in competition matters.    
      
      (see paras 268, 271-275, 278)
      11.    In order that the Commission can rely on the actual impact of a cartel on the market for the purpose of calculating the fine
         on the basis of the gravity of the infringement, as provided for in the first paragraph of Section 1A of the Guidelines on
         the method of setting fines imposed pursuant to Article 15(2) of Regulation No 17 and Article 65(5) of the ECSC Treaty, it
         is sufficient that it is able to provide specific and credible evidence indicating with reasonable probability that the cartel
         had such an impact, and there is no need to quantify it or provide any assessment in figures in this respect.
      
      Consideration of the impact of a cartel on the market necessarily involves recourse to assumptions. In this respect, the Commission
         must in particular consider what the price of the relevant product would have been in the absence of a cartel. When examining
         the causes of actual price developments, it is hazardous to speculate on the part played by each of those causes. Account
         must be taken of the objective fact that, because of the price cartel, the parties specifically waived their freedom to compete
         with one another on prices. Thus, the assessment of the influence of factors other than that voluntary decision of the parties
         in the cartel not to compete with one another is necessarily based on reasonable probability, which is not precisely quantifiable.
      
      Both the fact that the parties involved in the cartel held the majority (indeed even almost all) of the market concerned and
         that the arrangements brought to light were specifically intended to increase prices to a level higher than that which they
         would otherwise have reached are indications tending to show that the infringement was capable of producing significant anti‑competitive
         effects.
      
      However, the Commission cannot be required, where the implementation of a cartel has been established, systematically to demonstrate
         that the agreements in fact enabled the undertakings concerned to achieve a higher level of transaction prices than that which
         would have prevailed in the absence of a cartel. It would be disproportionate to require such proof, which would absorb considerable
         resources, given that it would necessitate making hypothetical calculations based on economic models whose accuracy it would
         be difficult for the Court to verify and whose infallibility is in no way proved.
      
      (see paras 297, 300-301, 303, 307)
      12.    As regards the calculation of the amount of fines imposed by the Commission for infringements of Community competition law,
         the essential procedural requirement to state reasons is satisfied where the Commission indicates in its decision the factors
         which it took into account in accordance with the Guidelines on the method of setting fines imposed pursuant to Article 15(2)
         of Regulation No 17 and Article 65(5) of the ECSC Treaty and, where appropriate, the Notice on the non‑imposition or reduction
         of fines, and which enabled it to determine the gravity of the infringement and its duration for the purpose of calculating
         the amount of the fine. The scope of the duty to state reasons must be determined in the light of the fact that the gravity
         of infringements must be established by reference to a large number of factors and no binding or exhaustive list of the criteria
         which must be applied has been drawn up. Moreover, it is important to ensure that fines are not easily foreseeable by economic
         operators so as not to undermine the deterrent effect of those fines. If the amount of the fine were the result of a calculation
         which followed a simple arithmetical formula, undertakings would be able to predict the possible penalty and to compare it
         with the profit that they would derive from the infringement of the competition rules. The duty to state reasons does not
         therefore require the Commission to indicate in its decision the figures relating to the method of calculating the amount
         of fines.
      
      (see paras 331, 333, 336, 343)
      13.    As the Commission is not obliged to calculate the fine by reference to amounts based on the turnover of the undertakings concerned,
         it is likewise not required to ensure, where fines are imposed on several undertakings involved in the same infringement,
         that the final amount of the fines produced by the calculation for the undertakings concerned reflects any distinction between
         them regarding their total turnover or their turnover in the relevant product market.
      
      First, Community law contains no general principle that the penalty be proportionate to the undertaking’s size on the product
         market in respect of which the infringement was committed. Second, Article 15(2) of Regulation No 17 likewise does not require
         that, where fines are imposed on several undertakings involved in the same infringement, the fine imposed on a small or medium-sized
         undertaking must not be greater, as a percentage of turnover, than those imposed on the larger undertakings. It is clear from
         that provision that, both for small or medium-sized undertakings and for larger undertakings, account must be taken, in determining
         the amount of the fine, of the gravity and duration of the infringement. Where the Commission imposes on undertakings involved
         in a single infringement fines which are justified, for each of them, by reference to the gravity and duration of the infringement,
         it cannot be criticised on the ground that, for some of them, the amount of the fine is greater, by reference to turnover,
         than that imposed on other undertakings.
      
      The Commission is likewise not compelled to set fines that are proportionate to turnover and also perfectly coherent with
         those imposed in earlier cases that are comparable as regards the gravity of the infringements. Its practice in earlier decisions
         does not in itself serve as a legal framework for fines in competition matters. The fact that in the past the Commission has
         applied fines of a particular level for certain types of infringements does not mean that it is estopped from raising that
         level within the limits indicated by Regulation No 17 if that is necessary to ensure implementation of Community competition
         policy. Furthermore, the gravity of infringements must be established by reference to numerous factors, such as the particular
         circumstances of the case, its context and the deterrent effect of fines; moreover, no binding or exhaustive list of the criteria
         which must be applied has been drawn up. The relevant data, such as the markets, the products, the countries, the undertakings
         and the periods concerned differ in each case.
      
      In this respect, the Community judicature has power to assess, in the exercise of its unlimited jurisdiction under Article
         229 EC and Article 17 of Regulation No 17, the appropriateness of the amount of the fines.
      
      (see paras 338-344)
      14.    An undertaking – that is to say an economic unit comprising personal, tangible and intangible elements – is directed by the
         organs provided for in its articles of association and any decision imposing a fine on it may be addressed to the management
         as provided for in those articles of association (management board, management committee, chairman, manager, and so on). The
         rules of competition would be easily circumvented if the Commission, faced with unlawful conduct on the part of an undertaking,
         were required to ascertain and to prove who is the author of the various activities, which could have the effect of preventing
         it from penalising the undertaking which benefited from the cartel.
      
      (see paras 360, 430)
      15.    For the purposes of calculating the duration of an infringement of the competition rules, the Commission is entitled to take
         into account partial years. Nothing in the Guidelines on the method of setting fines imposed pursuant to Article 15(2) of
         Regulation No 17 and Article 65(5) of the ECSC Treaty prevents the actual duration of the infringement from being taken into
         account. Such an approach is entirely logical and reasonable and falls, in any event, within the Commission’s discretion.
      
      (see para. 361)
      16.    With respect to long-term infringements of the competition rules, the Commission may automatically apply the maximum rate
         of increase per year of 10% of the amount decided on to reflect the gravity of the infringement. Even if the third indent
         of the first paragraph of Section 1B of the Guidelines on the method of setting fines imposed pursuant to Article 15(2) of
         Regulation No 17 and Article 65(5) of the ECSC Treaty does not provide that there should be an automatic increase, it leaves
         the Commission a margin of assessment in that connection.
      
      (see para. 362)
      17.    For the purpose of increasing the amount of the fine on the basis of the duration of the infringement, as provided for in
         Section 1B of the Guidelines on the method of setting fines imposed pursuant to Article 15(2) of Regulation No 17 and Article
         65(5) of the ECSC Treaty, it would not be logical to take into account a variation in the intensity of the infringement during
         the period concerned. That increase is calculated by the application of a certain percentage to the starting amount which
         is determined according to the gravity of the infringement as a whole, thus already reflecting the different levels of intensity
         of the infringement. 
      
      (see para. 364)
      18.    The concept of repeated infringement does not necessarily imply that a fine has been imposed in the past, but merely that
         a finding of infringement of Community competition law has been made in the past. The purpose of taking repeated infringement
         into account is to induce undertakings which have demonstrated a tendency towards infringing the competition rules to change
         their conduct when it transpires that a previous finding of infringement on their part has not been sufficient to prevent
         the repetition of unlawful conduct. Thus, it is not the previous imposition of a fine, and a fortiori not the amount thereof, which is determinative of repeated infringement, but the fact that a previous finding of a similar
         infringement of the same Treaty provision has been made.
      
      In the case of two contemporaneous infringements, the increase of the amount of the fine penalising one of those infringements
         in consideration of the fact that the other infringement has already been the subject of a decision imposing sanctions is
         not justified if the greater part of the period of participation in the second infringement pre-dates the decision penalising
         the first infringement. However, the Commission does not infringe its discretion where it increases on account of repeated
         infringement the amount of the fine imposed in respect of the second infringement because that infringement continued several
         years after the first finding of an infringement. 
      
      (see paras 387-388, 390-391, 393-394, 396)
      19.    In the context of deterrence, repeated infringement justifies a significant increase in the basic amount of a fine imposed
         for an infringement of the competition rules. It is evidence that the sanction previously imposed was not sufficiently deterrent.
         In that respect, the fact that, in the first infringement, the role of the undertaking penalised was minor and passive cannot
         call in question the consequences attaching to the repeated infringement, since what matters is the fact that, despite the
         finding that there has been an infringement of Community competition law, the undertaking in question continued to infringe
         it.
      
      When setting an increase for repeated infringement, the Commission may confine itself to examining what would be the proportional
         percentage and does not need to take into account the amount, in absolute terms, of the increase of the basic amount of the
         fine as a result of the application of that percentage. As long as the percentage increase is not excessive, the increase
         in absolute terms is only the mathematical consequence of the application of that percentage to the basic amount, whose proportionality
         in relation to the gravity and duration of the infringement in question was examined separately.
      
      The mere fact that, in another decision, the Commission increased the basic amount for a repeated infringement differently
         does not mean that it is required to apply the same percentage increase in the contested decision. The Commission’s practice
         in previous decisions does not itself serve as a legal framework for the fines imposed in competition matters, since that
         framework is defined solely in Regulation No 17.
      
      The fact that that increase exceeds the starting amount of the fine imposed for the gravity of the infringement on the other
         participants in the infringement is also irrelevant as regards the level of the increase for repeated infringement. Since
         the fine was determined correctly and the increase for repeated infringement is proportionate, the fact that the increase
         in absolute terms is higher than the starting amount of the fines imposed on the other participants in the infringement is
         just a mathematical consequence of the increase which is unrelated to the amount of the other fines.
      
      The same applies in respect of the fact that the increase for repeated infringement exceeds the reduction of the amount of
         the fine awarded to the penalised undertaking on account of its cooperation with the Commission. They are in fact two separate
         stages in determining the amount of the fine.
      
      Finally, the penalised undertaking cannot, in order to call in question the amount of the increase of the fine for repeated
         infringement, rely on the fact that the Commission applied to it the same increase for repeated infringement as to another
         participant in the same infringement, even though the characteristics of the earlier infringement committed by that participant
         are not analogous to those of the earlier infringement attributed to that undertaking. Since the increase for repeated infringement
         relates to an aggravating circumstance specific to the undertaking in question, what is relevant is the fact that both undertakings
         were previously involved in infringements, but that, despite the finding of those infringements, they did not bring to an
         end their involvement in a fresh infringement. 
      
      (see paras 398-399, 401, 406-412)
      20.    Whilst it is indeed important that an undertaking takes steps to prevent fresh infringements of Community competition law
         from being committed by members of its staff in the future, that circumstance does not alter the fact that an infringement
         was found to have been committed. It follows that the mere fact that in certain of its previous decisions the Commission took
         the establishment of a programme for aligning the undertaking’s conduct with Community competition rules into consideration
         as a mitigating factor does not mean that it is obliged to act in the same manner in any given case. 
      
      The Commission is therefore not required to take a circumstance such as that into account as a mitigating factor, provided
         that it adheres to the principle of equality of treatment, which requires that it should not assess the matter differently
         for any undertaking addressed by the same decision.
      
      (see paras 423-424)
      21.    The possibility of granting to an undertaking which has cooperated with the Commission during proceedings for infringement
         of the competition rules a reduction of the fine outside the framework laid down by the Notice on the non‑imposition or reduction
         of fines in cartel cases, as provided for in the sixth indent of Section 3 of the Guidelines adopted by the Commission on
         the method of setting fines imposed pursuant to Article 15(2) of Regulation No 17 and Article 65(5) of the ECSC Treaty, necessarily
         means that the cooperation in question was not capable of reward under the Leniency Notice and that it was effective, that
         is to say, that it facilitated the Commission’s task of finding and putting an end to infringements of the Community competition
         rules.
      
      (see paras 426, 428)
      22.    Under the third indent of Section 3 of the Guidelines adopted by the Commission on the method of setting fines imposed pursuant
         to Article 15(2) of Regulation No 17 and Article 65(5) of the ECSC Treaty, ‘termination of the infringement as soon as the
         Commission intervenes (in particular when it carries out checks)’ is an attenuating circumstance. However, a reduction of
         the fine by reason of the termination of an infringement as soon as the Commission intervenes cannot be automatic but depends
         on an appraisal of the circumstances of the case by the Commission in the course of its discretion. In that regard, the application
         of that provision of the Guidelines in favour of an undertaking will be particularly appropriate where the conduct in question
         is not manifestly anti‑competitive. Conversely, its application will be less appropriate, as a general rule, where the conduct
         is clearly anti‑competitive, on the assumption that it is proven. Even if, in the past, the Commission has regarded voluntary
         termination of an infringement as an attenuating circumstance, it is entitled, when applying its Guidelines, to take account
         of the fact that, even though their illegality was established at the inception of Community competition policy, very serious
         manifest infringements are relatively frequent and, therefore, to take the view that it is appropriate to abandon that generous
         practice and no longer reward the termination of such an infringement by a reduction of the fine. In those circumstances,
         the appropriateness of a reduction of a fine by reason of termination of the infringement depends on whether the undertaking
         accused of the infringement could reasonably doubt the illegality of its conduct. 
      
      That is not the case in respect of a secret cartel whose object is an exchange of information in an oligopolistic market and
         a stabilisation of markets. That type of cartel constitutes a very serious infringement and the undertakings concerned must
         therefore be aware of the unlawful nature of their conduct. The secret nature of the cartel confirms moreover the fact that
         the undertakings concerned are aware of the unlawful nature of their actions.
      
      (see paras 436-439)
      23.    Whilst the amount of the fine imposed for infringement of the Community competition rules must be proportionate to the duration
         of the infringement and the other factors capable of affecting the assessment of the gravity of the infringement, including
         the profit that the undertaking concerned was able to derive from those practices, the fact that an undertaking did not benefit
         from an infringement cannot preclude the imposition of a fine since otherwise it would cease to have a deterrent effect. It
         follows that the Commission is not required, when fixing the amount of fines, to take account of the fact that no benefit
         was derived from the infringement in question.
      
      In that connection, although the Commission may, under Section 2, fifth indent, of its Guidelines on the method of setting
         fines imposed pursuant to Article 15(2) of Regulation No 17 and Article 65(5) of the ECSC Treaty and in respect of aggravating
         circumstances, increase a fine in order to exceed the amount of gains improperly made as a result of the infringement, that
         does not mean that the Commission is then under an obligation to establish in every case, for the purpose of determining the
         amount of the fine, the financial advantage linked to the infringement found to have been committed. In other words, the absence
         of such an advantage cannot be regarded as an attenuating circumstance.
      
       (see paras 441-443)
      24.    In carrying out the duties assigned to it in competition matters, the Commission may obtain all necessary information from
         the governments and competent authorities of the Member States and from undertakings and associations of undertakings. The
         Commission is in particular entitled to compel an undertaking to provide all necessary information concerning such facts as
         may be known to it and to disclose to it, if necessary, such documents relating thereto as are in that undertaking’s possession,
         even if the latter may be used to establish, against it or another undertaking, the existence of anti‑competitive conduct.
         Consequently,  replies given pursuant to Article 11(1) of Regulation No 17 constitute the performance of an obligation and
         not voluntary cooperation within the meaning of the Notice on the non‑imposition or reduction of fines in cartel cases.
      
      (see para. 468)
      25.    As a consequence of a judgment of annulment, which takes effect ex tunc and thus has the effect of retroactively eliminating the annulled measure from the legal system, the defendant institution
         is required, by virtue of Article 233 EC, to take the necessary measures to reverse the effects of the illegalities as found
         in the judgment of annulment, and, in the case of a measure that has already been executed, this may take the form of restoring
         the applicant to the position he was in prior to that measure.
      
      Foremost amongst the measures referred to in Article 233 EC, in the case of a judgment annulling or reducing the fine imposed
         on an undertaking for infringement of the Treaty competition rules, is the Commission’s obligation to repay all or part of
         the fine paid by the undertaking in question in so far as that payment must be characterised as a sum unduly paid following
         the annulment decision. That obligation applies not only to the principal amount of the fine overpaid but also to default
         interest on that amount. If the Commission did not consent to any default interest on the principal amount of the fine reimbursed
         following such a judgment, it would be failing to take a measure necessary to comply with that judgment and would thereby
         be in breach of its obligations under Article 233 EC.
      
      It follows that, in proceedings for annulment of a fine imposed for infringement of the competition rules, an order requiring
         the Commission to repay all or part of the fine paid by the undertaking in question, plus interest, is inadmissible, in so
         far as that payment must be considered as a sum unduly paid following the annulment decision.
      
      (see paras 486-489)
JUDGMENT OF THE COURT OF FIRST INSTANCE (Third Chamber)
      8 July 2008 (*)
      
      (Competition – Cartels – Plasterboard market – Decision finding an infringement of Article 81 EC – Single and continuous infringement – Repeated infringement – Fine – Guidelines on the method of setting fines – Leniency Notice)
      In Case T‑53/03,
      BPB plc, established in Slough (United Kingdom), represented by T. Sharpe QC, and A. Nourry, Solicitor,
      
      applicant,
      v
      Commission of the European Communities, represented by F. Castillo de la Torre, acting as Agent, J. Flynn QC, and C. Kilroy, Barrister, 
      
      defendant,
      APPLICATION for the annulment in part of Commission Decision 2005/471/EC of 27 November 2002 relating to a proceeding under
         Article 81 [EC] against BPB plc, Gebrüder Knauf Westdeutsche Gipswerke KG, Société Lafarge SA and Gyproc Benelux NV (Case
         No COMP/E-1/37.152 – Plasterboard) (OJ 2005 L 166, p. 8), or, in the alternative, annulment or reduction of the fine imposed
         on the applicant,
      
      THE COURT OF FIRST INSTANCE OF THE EUROPEAN COMMUNITIES (Third Chamber),
      composed of M. Jaeger, President, V. Tiili and O. Czúcz, Judges,
      Registrar: K. Pocheć, Administrator,
      having regard to the written procedure and further to the hearing on 24 January 2007,
      gives the following
      Judgment
       Facts
      1        BPB plc manufactures and markets plasterboard-based building materials. 
      
      2        On the basis of information received, on 25 November 1998 the Commission carried out unannounced inspections at the premises
         of eight undertakings operating in the plasterboard sector, including the applicant. On 1 July 1999, it pursued its investigations
         at the premises of two other undertakings. 
      
      3        The Commission then sent requests for information under Article 11 of Council Regulation No 17 of 6 February 1962, First Regulation
         implementing Articles [81 EC] and [82 EC] (OJ, English Special Edition 1959–1962, p. 87) to the various undertakings concerned.
         It sent four such requests to the applicant. BPB replied to them on 17 March 1999, 28 October 1999, 18 May 2000 and 6 September
         2002.
      
      4        On 18 April 2001, the Commission initiated the procedure in this case and adopted a statement of objections which it addressed
         to the applicant and to Gebrüder Knauf Westdeutsche Gipswerke KG (‘Knauf’), Société Lafarge SA (‘Lafarge’), Etex SA and Gyproc
         Benelux NV (‘Gyproc’). The undertakings concerned submitted their written observations and were given access to the Commission’s
         investigation file in the form of a copy on CD-Rom which was sent to them on 17 May 2001. 
      
      5        The applicant replied to the statement of objections on 8 July 2001.
      
      6        On 27 November 2002, the Commission adopted Decision 2005/471/EC relating to a proceeding under Article 81 [EC] against BPB,
         Knauf, Lafarge and Gyproc (Case No COMP/E-1/37.152 – Plasterboard) (OJ 2005 L 166, p. 8; ‘the contested decision’).
      
      7        The operative part of the contested decision states: 
      
      ‘Article 1
      BPB … , the Knauf Group, … Lafarge … and Gyproc … have infringed Article 81(1) [EC] by participating in a set of agreements
         and concerted practices in the plasterboard business.
      
      The duration of the infringement was as follows: 
      (a)      BPB …: from 31 March 1992, at the latest, to 25 November 1998 
      (b)      [the] Knauf [Group]: from 31 March 1992, at the latest, to 25 November 1998 
      (c)      … Lafarge …: from 31 August 1992, at the latest, to 25 November 1998 
      (d)      Gyproc …: from 6 June 1996, at the latest, to 25 November 1998
      …
      Article 3
      In respect of the infringement referred to in Article 1, the following fines are imposed on the following undertakings: 
      (a)      BPB …: EUR 138.6 million 
      (b)      … Knauf …: EUR 85.8 million 
      (c)      … Lafarge …: EUR 249.6 million 
      (d)      Gyproc …: EUR 4.32 million …
      …’
      8        The Commission found in the contested decision that the undertakings concerned participated in a single and continuous agreement
         which was manifested in the following conduct constituting agreements or concerted practices:
      
      –        the representatives of BPB and Knauf met in London (United Kingdom) in 1992 and expressed the common desire to stabilise the
         plasterboard markets in Germany, the United Kingdom, France and the Benelux;
      
      –        the representatives of BPB and Knauf established, as from 1992, information exchange arrangements, to which Lafarge and subsequently
         Gyproc acceded, relating to their sales volumes on the German, French, United Kingdom and Benelux plasterboard markets;
      
      –        the representatives of BPB, Knauf and Lafarge exchanged information, on various occasions, prior to price increases on the
         United Kingdom market; 
      
      –        in view of particular developments on the German market, the representatives of BPB, Knauf, Lafarge and Gyproc met at Versailles
         (France) in 1996, Brussels (Belgium) in 1997 and The Hague (Netherlands) in 1998 with a view to sharing out or at least stabilising
         the German market; 
      
      –        the representatives of BPB, Knauf, Lafarge and Gyproc exchanged information on various occasions and concerted their action
         on the application of price increases on the German market between 1996 and 1998. 
      
      9        For the purpose of calculating the amount of the fine, the Commission applied the methods set out in its Guidelines on the
         method of setting fines imposed pursuant to Article 15(2) of Regulation No 17 and Article 65(5) of the ECSC Treaty (OJ 1998
         C 9, p. 3; ‘the Guidelines’). 
      
      10      In fixing the starting amount of the fines, determined according to the gravity of the infringement, the Commission initially
         considered that the undertakings concerned had committed an infringement which was very serious by its very nature in so far
         as the aim of the practices at issue was to put an end to the price war and to stabilise the market through exchanges of confidential
         information. The Commission also considered that the practices at issue had had an impact on the market, since the undertakings
         concerned represented almost all plasterboard supply and the various manifestations of the cartel had been put into practice
         in a highly concentrated and oligopolistic market. As regards the geographic extent of the relevant market, the Commission
         considered that the cartel had covered the four main European Community markets, namely Germany, the United Kingdom, France
         and the Benelux. 
      
      11      Considering, next, that there was a considerable disparity between the undertakings concerned, the Commission took a differentiated
         approach, relying for that purpose on the sales turnover for the product concerned on the relevant markets during the last
         complete year of the infringement. On that basis, the starting amount of the fines was set at EUR 80 million for BPB, EUR 52 million
         for Knauf and Lafarge and EUR 8 million for Gyproc.
      
      12      In order to ensure that the fine had an adequate deterrent effect having regard to the size and aggregate resources of the
         undertakings, the starting amount of the fine imposed on Lafarge was increased by 100%, becoming EUR 104 million. 
      
      13      In order to take account of the duration of the infringement, the starting amount was then increased by 65% for BPB and Knauf,
         by 60% for Lafarge and by 20% for Gyproc, the infringement being classified by the Commission as of long duration in the case
         of Knauf, Lafarge and BPB and of medium duration in the case of Gyproc. 
      
      14      In respect of aggravating circumstances, the basic amount of the fines imposed on BPB and Lafarge was increased by 50% on
         account of recidivism. 
      
      15      Next, the Commission reduced by 25% the fine imposed on Gyproc on account of attenuating circumstances, in that it had acted
         as a destabilising element helping to limit the impact of the cartel on the German market and it was absent from the United
         Kingdom market. 
      
      16      Finally, the Commission reduced the amount of the fines by 30% for BPB and by 40% for Gyproc, pursuant to Section D.2 of the
         Commission Notice on the non‑imposition or reduction of fines in cartel cases (OJ 1996 C 207, p. 4; ‘the Leniency Notice’).
         Accordingly, the final amount of the fines imposed was EUR 138.6 million for BPB, EUR 85.8 million for Knauf, EUR 249.6 million
         for Lafarge and EUR 4.32 million for Gyproc. 
      
       Procedure and forms of order sought 
      17      By application lodged at the Registry of the Court of First Instance on 14 February 2003, the applicant brought the present
         action. 
      
      18      Following a change in the composition of the Chambers of the Court at the beginning of the new judicial year, the Judge-Rapporteur
         was assigned to the Third Chamber, and this case was therefore also assigned to it.
      
      19      On hearing the report of the Judge-Rapporteur, the Court (Third Chamber) decided to open the oral procedure and, by way of
         measures of organisation of procedure under Article 64 of the Rules of Procedure of the Court of First Instance, requested
         the parties to lodge certain documents, and put questions in writing to which they replied within the prescribed period.
      
      20      The parties presented oral argument and their answers to the oral questions put by the Court at the hearing on 24 January
         2007.
      
      21      At the hearing, the Court requested the applicant to clarify its request for confidentiality before 7 February 2007. A period
         of time was also granted to the Commission for any observations it might have on the applicant’s reply concerning the confidential
         information. 
      
      22      The oral procedure was closed on 27 March 2007. 
      
      23      The applicant claims that the Court of First Instance should:
      
      –        annul Articles 1 and 2 of the contested decision in so far as they relate to it;
      –        in the alternative, annul Article 3 of the contested decision in so far as it relates to it, or, in the further alternative,
         reduce appropriately the amount of the fine imposed on it by the Commission in the contested decision; 
      
      –        subject to the annulment of Article 3 of the contested decision or reduction of the amount of the fine, order repayment of
         the principal sum paid by the applicant, together with such interest as the Court may determine in accordance with law; 
      
      –        order the Commission to pay the costs. 
      24      The Commission contends that the Court of First Instance should:
      
      –        dismiss the application;
      –        order the applicant to pay the costs. 
       Law
      1.     The first plea: breach of the rights of the defence 
       Arguments of the parties
      25      The applicant considers that the Commission has infringed the rights of the defence and the general principal of equality
         of arms by relying on evidence not provided to the applicant. 
      
      26      First, the applicant submits that the Commission did not grant it access to information provided by an anonymous informant.
         According to the applicant, that information was used by the Commission on 19 November 1998 in order to obtain a search warrant
         from a United Kingdom court. The applicant also considers that it appears from the affidavit attached as an annex to the application
         for a search warrant that the Commission considered that information to be convincing. The applicant maintains that the Commission’s
         conviction that there was a complex cartel influenced its interpretation of all the facts and evidence.
      
      27      Second, the applicant submits that the Commission should have granted access to the replies of the other addressees of the
         statement of objections. The Commission relied on those replies on several occasions in the contested decision for the factual
         and evidential findings.
      
      28      The Commission considers that the obligation to observe the rights of the defence does not require it to disclose the entire
         contents of the file to the undertakings concerned and thereby compromise any confidentiality of elements of the file. It
         is under no obligation to disclose to an addressee of a statement of objections inculpatory documents on which the Commission
         does not propose to rely. In this case, the Commission drew its inferences only from the evidence before it which is described
         in the statement of objections and in the contested decision. 
      
      29      The Commission denies that the applicant’s rights of defence have been infringed by its having been unable to examine the
         replies of the other addressees of the statement of objections. The Commission states that if, after adoption of the statement
         of objections, new matters come to light which it intends to use and regarding which the undertakings have not had the opportunity
         to submit their views, it must send a supplementary statement of objections or a letter asking the undertakings concerned
         for further observations on that new evidence. Its failure to do so would prevent it from relying on those matters as against
         the addressees of the initial statement of objections. 
      
      30      In this case, all the examples given by the applicant concerned admissions or denials of allegations which already appear
         in the statement of objections, on which therefore the applicant had the opportunity to comment. None of those statements
         introduces any new objection or new piece of factual information on which the Commission relied for its conclusions. 
      
       Findings of the Court
      31      It must first be recalled that access to the file in competition cases is intended in particular to enable the addressees
         of statements of objections to acquaint themselves with the evidence in the Commission’s file so that, on the basis of that
         evidence, they can express their views effectively on the conclusions reached by the Commission in its statement of objections.
         Access to the file is thus one of the procedural safeguards intended to protect the rights of the defence and to ensure, in
         particular, that the right to be heard can be exercised effectively (see Joined Cases T‑191/98, T‑212/98 to T‑214/98 Atlantic Container Line and Others v Commission [2003] ECR II‑3275, paragraph 334 and the case-law cited). 
      
      32      With regard to inculpatory evidence, the obligation to allow access to the file relates merely to the evidence ultimately
         relied on in the decision and not to all the complaints which the Commission may have expressed at any stage of the administrative
         procedure (Atlantic Container Line and Others v Commission, paragraph 31 above, paragraph 337). A document can be regarded as a document that incriminates an applicant only where it
         is used by the Commission to support a finding of an infringement in which that party is alleged to have participated (Joined
         Cases T‑25/95, T‑26/95, T‑30/95 to T‑32/95, T‑34/95 to T‑39/95, T‑42/95 to T‑46/95, T‑48/95, T‑50/95 to T‑65/95, T‑68/95 to
         T‑71/95, T‑87/95, T‑88/95, T‑103/95 and T‑104/95 Cementeries CBR and Others v Commission [2000] ECR II‑491, ‘Cement’, paragraph 284).
      
      33      Further, the applicant may not demand access, in a general and abstract way, to documents or information which have not been
         communicated to it without stating how the inculpatory evidence relied upon by the Commission in the contested decision was
         determined by those documents or that information. According to the case-law, an infringement of the rights of the defence
         cannot be founded on a general argument but must be examined in relation to the specific circumstances of each particular
         case (Atlantic Container Line and Others v Commission, paragraph 31 above, paragraphs 353 and 354). 
      
      34      In the present case, as regards the information provided by the anonymous informant, the Commission does not dispute that
         that information was a factor in triggering the investigations. However, as is apparent from the contested decision, that
         information was ultimately not referred to as such by the Commission and the objections upheld were proved by other evidence.
         
      
      35      Similarly, the applicant has not indicated any objection maintained either in the statement of objections or in the contested
         decision which is based solely on the information provided by the anonymous informant and to which it did not have access.
         
      
      36      Further, even if the Commission has an obligation to make available to the undertakings involved in proceedings under Article
         81(1) EC all documents, whether in their favour or otherwise, which it has obtained during the course of the investigation,
         that obligation does not extend to business secrets of other undertakings, the internal documents of the Commission or other
         confidential information (Joined Cases C‑204/00 P, C‑205/00 P, C‑211/00 P, C‑213/00 P, C‑217/00 P and C‑219/00 P Aalborg Portland and Others v Commission [2004] ECR I‑123, paragraph 68 and Atlantic Container Line and Others v Commission, paragraph 31 above, paragraph 335). Thus, as the Commission asserts, in the case of information supplied on a purely voluntary
         basis, accompanied by a request for confidentiality in order to protect the informant’s anonymity, an institution which accepts
         such information is bound to comply with such a condition (Case 145/83 Adams v Commission [1985] ECR 3539, paragraph 34). The Commission’s ability to guarantee the anonymity of certain of its sources of information
         is of crucial importance with a view to ensuring the effective prevention of prohibited anti‑competitive practices (Case C‑94/00
         Roquette Frères [2002] ECR I‑9011, paragraph 64).
      
      37      Consequently, proceedings initiated on the basis of information from an undisclosed source are lawful, provided that this
         does not affect the opportunity for the person concerned to make known his views on the truth or implication of the facts,
         on the documents communicated or on the conclusions drawn by the Commission from them (Case 85/76 Hoffmann-La Roche v Commission [1979] ECR 461, paragraph 14).
      
      38      In the light of the obligation to ensure the confidentiality of the information, and of the fact that the applicant has not
         referred to any objection maintained either in the statement of objections or in the contested decision which is based on
         evidence to which it did not have access, it cannot complain that the Commission infringed the rights of the defence and the
         general principle of equality of arms on the ground that the Commission did not give it access to the information provided
         by the anonymous informant.
      
      39      As regards access to the replies of the other addressees of the statement of objections, it is common ground that the applicant
         did not have access to those replies during the administrative procedure.
      
      40      As regards, first, the failure to communicate the alleged inculpatory evidence which was not in the investigation file, the
         Court notes that the observance of the rights of the defence constitutes a fundamental principle of Community law which must
         be respected in all circumstances, in particular in any procedure which may give rise to penalties, even if it is an administrative
         procedure. It requires that the undertakings and associations of undertakings concerned be afforded the opportunity, from
         the stage of the administrative procedure, to make known their views on the truth and relevance of the facts, objections and
         circumstances put forward by the Commission (Hoffmann-La Roche v Commission, paragraph 37 above, paragraph 11, and Case T‑11/89 Shell v Commission [1992] ECR II‑757, paragraph 39).
      
      41      Next, it should be borne in mind that, if the Commission wishes to rely on a passage in a reply to a statement of objections
         or on a document annexed to such a reply in order to prove the existence of an infringement in a proceeding under Article
         81(1) EC, the other undertakings involved in that proceeding must be placed in a position in which they can express their
         views on such evidence. In such circumstances the passage in question from a reply to the statement of objections or the document
         annexed thereto constitutes evidence against the various parties alleged to have participated in the infringement (see Cement, paragraph 32 above, paragraph 386, and Case T‑314/01 Avebe v Commission [2006] ECR II‑3085, paragraph 50 and the case-law cited).
      
      42      A document cannot be regarded as an inculpatory document unless it is used by the Commission in support of its finding of
         an infringement by an undertaking. In order to establish a breach of the rights of the defence, it is not sufficient for the
         undertaking in question to show that it was not able to express its views during the administrative procedure on a document
         used in a given part of the contested decision. It must demonstrate that the Commission used that document in the contested
         decision as evidence of an infringement in which the undertaking participated (Joined Cases T‑44/02 OP, T‑54/02 OP, T‑56/02
         OP, T‑60/02 OP and T‑61/02 OP Dresdner Bank and Others v Commission [2006] ECR II‑3567, paragraph 158).
      
      43      Since documents that have not been communicated to the undertakings concerned during the administrative procedure are not
         admissible evidence, it will be necessary to exclude those documents as evidence if it should prove that the Commission relied
         in the Decision on documents that were not in the investigation file and were not communicated to the applicants (Cement, paragraph 32 above, paragraph 382).
      
      44      If there is other documentary evidence of which the undertakings concerned were aware during the administrative procedure
         that specifically supports the Commission’s findings, the fact that an incriminating document not communicated to the person
         concerned is inadmissible as evidence does not affect the validity of the objections upheld in the contested decision (Aalborg Portland and Others v Commission, paragraph 36 above, paragraph 72).
      
      45      It is thus for the undertaking concerned to show that the result at which the Commission arrived in its decision would have
         been different if a document which was not communicated to that undertaking and on which the Commission relied to make a finding
         of infringement against it had to be disallowed as evidence (Aalborg Portland and Others v Commission, paragraph 36 above, paragraph 73).
      
      46      In the present case, BPB refers only to recitals 130, 232, 393 and 524 of the contested decision in order to illustrate that
         the Commission relied on the replies of the other addresses of the statement of objections as inculpatory evidence. 
      
      47      Concerning those examples, it should be observed that, at recital 524 of the contested decision, the Commission merely cites
         Gyproc’s statement, in its reply to the statement of objections, that its participation was of a different intensity. Thus,
         that evidence was in no way used against BPB.
      
      48      As regards recital 130 of the contested decision, it is an extract from Lafarge’s reply to the statement of objections claiming
         that BPB was the instigator of the information exchange system. However, at no point in the contested decision does the Commission
         use that statement of Lafarge in order to prove that BPB was the instigator of that system. Similarly, BPB’s fine was not
         increased on the ground that it was the instigator of the cartel. Further, as is apparent from an examination of the second
         plea below, BPB admitted that it infringed competition law by participating in an exchange of information on sales volumes
         on the four markets concerned.
      
      49      As regards recital 232 of the contested decision, namely the interpretation by Gyproc of the memorandum and the statements
         of Mr [E], managing director of Gyproc, in its reply to the statement of objections, reference should be made to Gyproc’s
         words:
      
      ‘Gyproc later backtracked on the memo and Mr [E]’ explicit statement by arguing that “the so-called Versailles agreement was
         only an attempt and was never effectively implemented” and also that “there was never a proper meeting of minds among the
         participants, and definitely not as far as Gyproc was concerned, about all the details of how the German market should be
         shared. The [undertakings concerned] never agreed about the precise market share that Gyproc should have. … So Gyproc scuppered
         the attempt to conclude an agreement between the four”.’
      
      50      As the Commission noted at recital 233 of the contested decision, the statements by Gyproc, which in principle have less probative
         value than the abovementioned memorandum and the spontaneous statements of Mr [E], do not negate either the content or the
         purpose of the talks that were held but only, possibly, their result. Further, it should be recalled that BPB admitted that
         the Versailles meeting took place and that the purpose of the meeting was to discuss the situation on the German market. 
      
      51      Moreover, it should be noted that the Commission found only that the undertakings in question had met in Versailles in 1996,
         Brussels in 1997 and The Hague in 1998 with a view to sharing or at least stabilising the German market, but it did not claim
         that they had succeeded in concluding an agreement on allocating shares of the German market. 
      
      52      In those circumstances, even if Gyproc’s interpretation of Mr [E]’s memorandum and statements set out at recital 232 of the
         contested decision were disregarded, that fact would not influence the assessments made by the Commission in that decision.
         
      
      53      Accordingly, the result at which the Commission arrived in the contested decision would not have been different if the extracts
         from Gyproc’s and Lafarge’s replies to the statement of objections referred to by BPB had been removed from the file. 
      
      54      Lastly, it is apparent from recital 393 of the contested decision that Gyproc accepted the Commission’s description of the
         facts regarding the price increases on the German market. This is indeed a factor that the Commission used to support its
         contention that there had been concerted action on price increases on the German market, a contention which BPB disputes.
         Thus, it is necessary to disregard that factor as evidence and then consider, so far as concerns BPB, whether the Commission
         demonstrated to the requisite legal standard that BPB, Knauf, Lafarge and Gyproc had exchanged information on various occasions
         and had concerted their action on the application of price increases on the German market between 1996 and 1998. 
      
      55      As regards, second, whether the replies of the other addresses of the statement of objections might have contained exculpatory
         evidence, the applicant has not put forward any arguments to that effect in the application. 
      
      56      In response to a written question of the Court requesting it to indicate the paragraphs of the application in which a plea
         alleging infringement of the rights of the defence relating to exculpatory evidence was raised, the applicant merely referred
         to paragraphs 75 to 120 of its application. Yet in those paragraphs the applicant does not submit that the replies of the
         other addressees of the statement of objections might have contained exculpatory evidence which it could have used for its
         defence. In those circumstances, the applicant’s arguments that the replies of the other addressees of the statement of objections
         might have contained exculpatory evidence must be rejected. 
      
      57      It follows from the foregoing that the first plea must be rejected, without prejudice to the possible effect of the fact that
         Gyproc’s statements in its reply to the statement of objections and referred to by the Commission in recital 393 of the contested
         decision are not to be taken into account. Consequently, it is necessary to examine the complaint in the second plea contesting
         the Commission’s findings on the exchange of information on price increases in Germany. 
      
      58      Furthermore, and for the sake of completeness, the Court will examine the substance of the case, disregarding all the inculpatory
         evidence derived from the replies of the other addresses of the statement of objections, in order to ascertain whether the
         Commission’s assessment as to the existence and effects of the infringement is demonstrated to the requisite legal standard
         even without that evidence.
      
      2.     The second plea: manifest errors and/or inadequacy of the statement of reasons concerning the application of Article 81(1)EC
            
       The standard of proof 
       Arguments of the parties
      59      The applicant takes the view that, in cases leading to the imposition of a heavy fine, the standard of evidence required is
         comparable to that in criminal proceedings. In that regard, the applicant submits that the burden of proof falls upon the
         Commission and that the infringement must be demonstrated to the requisite legal standard, a term which, according to the
         applicant, must be interpreted as requiring that convincing proof be adduced that the alleged infringements have been committed.
         It considers that, in such a situation, the ordinary application of the balance of probabilities is not sufficient. Moreover,
         in order to respect the presumption of innocence, any doubts about evidence must favour the defence. 
      
      60      The Commission disputes that the standard of proof to be applied in competition cases is the same as that required in criminal
         proceedings. 
      
       Findings of the Court
      61      According to case‑law, where there is a dispute as to the existence of an infringement of the competition rules, it is incumbent
         on the Commission to prove the infringements which it has found and to adduce evidence capable of demonstrating to the requisite
         legal standard the existence of circumstances constituting an infringement. In doing this, the Commission must establish in
         particular all the facts enabling the conclusion to be drawn that an undertaking participated in such an infringement and
         that it was responsible for the various aspects of it (Case C‑49/92 P Commission v Anic Partecipazioni [1999] ECR I‑4125, paragraph 86).
      
      62      When the infringement involves anti-competitive agreements and concerted practices, the Commission must, in particular, show
         that the undertaking intended to contribute by its own conduct to the common objectives pursued by all the participants and
         that it was aware of the actual conduct planned or put into effect by other undertakings in pursuit of the same objectives
         or that it could reasonably have foreseen it and that it was prepared to take the risk (Commission v Anic Partecipazioni, paragraph 61 above, paragraph 87).
      
      63      It is normal, in the context of anti‑competitive practices and agreements, for the activities to take place in a clandestine
         fashion, for meetings to be held in secret, and for the associated documentation to be reduced to a minimum. It follows that,
         even if the Commission discovers evidence explicitly showing unlawful contact between traders, it will normally be only fragmentary
         and sparse, so that it is often necessary to reconstitute certain details by deduction. Accordingly, in most cases, the existence
         of an anti-competitive practice or agreement must be inferred from a number of coincidences and indicia which, taken together,
         may, in the absence of another plausible explanation, constitute evidence of an infringement of the competition rules (Aalborg Portland and Others v Commission, paragraph 36 above, paragraphs 55 to 57). 
      
      64      It is apparent from that case‑law that the Court must reject the applicant’s assertion that the Commission must adduce proof
         ‘beyond reasonable doubt’ of the existence of the infringement in cases where it imposes heavy fines. 
      
       The London meeting 
       Arguments of the parties
      65      The applicant considers that the Commission has failed to prove that an agreement was entered into at the London meeting and
         that the subsequent information exchanges were a device to monitor the implementation of that agreement. The London meeting
         is the key to the Commission’s case, since the other events are linked to it and it marks the inception of the infringement.
      
      66      The applicant admits that that meeting took place but submits that the Commission’s interpretation of that admission goes
         beyond what it actually said. Even though Mr [A] (its then Chief Executive Officer (CEO)) discussed with the cousins of the
         Knauf family the vigorous competition in the plasterboard market and even though both parties recognised the problem, it denies
         categorically having reached an agreement on a solution with the cousins of the Knauf family. Moreover, no common wish to
         stabilise the market was expressed at that meeting. 
      
      67      The applicant also admits that that meeting may have been a factor in accelerating the end of the price war. However, that
         meeting is not the only causal factor. The applicant claims that the economic situation on the relevant market was such that
         in 1992 the price war had ended in any event. That is confirmed by the expert economist retained by it, whose report was however
         not taken into account by the Commission in the contested decision. 
      
      68      The applicant considers that the fact that competition continued on the market concerned contradicts the Commission’s interpretation
         of the London meeting. The Commission’s assertions in recitals 212 and 395 of the contested decision are not supported by
         any evidence. In that regard, the applicant maintains that the Commission decided not to take account of numerous proven examples
         of price volatility which it had given to the Commission in its reply to the statement of objections. The applicant also contests
         the Commission’s assertions regarding the stability of market shares. It claims that the Commission’s own tables in the annex
         to the contested decision show the contrary. It also states that the Commission’s allegations are devoid of probative value,
         since the Commission nowhere states in the contested decision what the pre-1992 market shares of the undertakings concerned
         were and, therefore, a comparison of market shares was impossible. 
      
      69      As regards the Commission’s assertion that there is no need to take account of the concrete effects of an infringement, the
         applicant claims that, where the existence of an agreement is merely asserted by the Commission and is not supported by any
         evidence, it is necessary to take account of evidence of what took place in the market. The applicant is of the opinion that,
         if that evidence tends to establish the absence of any anti-competitive agreement and no other evidence to the contrary has
         been adduced by the Commission, the latter must consider that no agreement was made. The applicant states that it is not merely
         a question of determining whether the agreement was implemented but rather of determining whether the Commission has established
         the existence of the alleged agreement. 
      
      70      The Commission states that the applicant’s argument that no agreement existed is based on the misapprehension that the agreement
         has to be finite, detailed and legally binding. It adds that the object of Article 81 EC is to bring within the prohibition
         of that article a form of coordination between undertakings which, without having reached the stage where an agreement properly
         so called has been concluded, knowingly substitutes practical cooperation between them for the risks of competition. The elaboration
         of an actual plan is not therefore required. The Commission maintains that even if the discussions that took place at the
         1992 meeting can not be classified as an agreement, they can be classified as a concerted practice, which is just as serious
         an infringement.
      
      71      The Commission considers that the London meeting and the agreement concluded there constitute the first practical manifestation
         of the complex and continuous infringement on which the contested decision is based. In view of the observations set out in
         recitals 56 to 69 of the contested decision and in particular of the fact that the information exchanges commenced at the
         London meeting or shortly afterwards, that conclusion is fully justified. It adds that it is unnecessary to prove that all
         the elements of the infringement were present or foreseen at the initial stage to establish that that agreement formed part
         of a single, complex and continuous infringement. 
      
      72      As regards BPB’s statement that the Commission failed to take account of the economic evidence, the Commission contends that
         it simply explained in recitals 329 to 402 of the contested decision that, in view of the circumstances of the case, the attempt
         by BPB and the other undertakings concerned to show, on the basis of economic analyses, that the competitive situation on
         the plasterboard market between 1992 and 1998 excluded any possibility of a restrictive agreement during that period was beside
         the point. The Commission states that it does not rely on mere similarity of observed conduct, nor does it use economic evidence
         to establish the infringement of Article 81(1) EC. Its conclusions are based on direct evidence of the anti-competitive agreement,
         which the economic analyses do nothing to explain away. Where the Commission makes reference, in the contested decision, to
         improved stability in the market concerned or price increases (as in recitals 289 and 539), the aim was to demonstrate the
         effects of the anti-competitive activity, not its existence. The Commission adds that the existence of an agreement can be
         established without the complete elimination thereby of all competition from the plasterboard market. Moreover, since the
         infringement established by the Commission pursued an anti-competitive purpose, it is settled case-law that there is no requirement
         for it to take account of the agreement’s concrete effects.
      
      73      The Commission takes the view, in response to the applicant’s argument that ‘fierce’ competition or the ‘price war’ was bound
         to end for economic reasons, that that argument is not relevant in determining the reasons for which and the conditions under
         which the ‘price war’ actually ended and in particular whether or not anti-competitive conduct by certain operators was the
         reason for that development. It considers that, having demonstrated that the cartel participants’ aim was to put an end to
         the price war and stabilise market shares and thereby restrict competition at least in the German, French, United Kingdom
         and Benelux plasterboard markets, it was fully entitled to conclude, as it did in recitals 72, 196, 212, 289 and 395 of the
         contested decision, that that objective was largely achieved. It contends that the market instability before 1992 was described
         in paragraph 28 of the statement of objections and was never contested. Moreover, as is clear from recitals 212 and 395 of
         the contested decision, the Commission found that prices on the United Kingdom and German markets tended to rise or at least
         be stable, in contrast to the position prior to 1992. 
      
       Findings of the Court
      74      BPB admits that the London meeting took place and that Mr [A] and the cousins of the Knauf family each expressed the view
         that it would be in the interests of the industry as a whole to put an end to the destructive price war. It also admits that,
         at that meeting or at the latest in 1992, the undertakings began to exchange overall market volume data for each principal
         market.
      
      75      However, BPB disputes that an express agreement to stabilise European markets destined to last for six years was concluded
         at that meeting. 
      
      76      It is therefore necessary to examine whether the London meeting had an anti‑competitive object.
      
      77      In this respect, according to recital 55 of the contested decision, BPB stated in its second reply to the request for information
         that, at that meeting, its representatives and those of Knauf ‘[had] reached an understanding that it was in [its] interest,
         [that of] Knauf[‘s] and [that of] the industry as a whole (including, ultimately, the interests of consumers) for the ruinous
         price war to end and for producers to attempt to compete at more sustainable economic levels’. 
      
      78      BPB subsequently argued that the term ‘understanding’ used by it should be interpreted in its most general sense as meaning
         a ‘consensus of views’. 
      
      79      It is settled case-law that in order for there to be an agreement within the meaning of Article 81(1) EC, it is sufficient
         that the undertakings in question should have expressed their joint intention to conduct themselves on the market in a specific
         way (Case T‑9/99 HFB and Others v Commission [2002] ECR II‑1487, paragraph 199; Case T‑61/99 Adriatica di Navigazione v Commission [2003] ECR II‑5349, paragraph 88; and Joined Cases T‑49/02 to T‑51/02 Brasserie nationale and Others v Commission [2005] ECR II‑3033, paragraph 118). As regards the form in which that common intention is expressed, it is sufficient for
         a stipulation to be the expression of the intention of the undertakings concerned to behave on the market in accordance with
         its terms (Case T‑56/02 Bayerische Hypo- und Vereinsbank v Commission [2004] ECR II‑3495, paragraph 60).
      
      80      It follows that, in order to constitute an agreement within the meaning of Article 81(1) EC, it is sufficient that an act
         or conduct which is apparently unilateral be the expression of the concurrence of wills of at least two parties, the form
         in which that concurrence is expressed not being by itself decisive (Case C‑74/04 P Commission v Volkswagen [2006] ECR I‑6585, paragraph 37). 
      
      81      The criteria of coordination, convergence and cooperation, far from requiring the elaboration of an actual ‘plan’, must be
         understood in the light of the concept inherent in the Treaty provisions relating to competition, namely that each economic
         operator must determine independently the policy which it intends to adopt on the common market. Although that requirement
         of independence does not deprive economic operators of the right to adapt themselves intelligently to the existing and anticipated
         conduct of their competitors, it strictly precludes any direct or indirect contact between such operators with the object
         or effect either to influence the conduct on the market of an actual or potential competitor or to disclose to such a competitor
         the course of conduct which they themselves have decided to adopt or contemplate adopting on the market (Joined Cases 40/73
         to 48/73, 50/73, 54/73 to 56/73, 111/73, 113/73 and 114/73 Suiker Unie and Others v Commission [1975] ECR 1663, paragraphs 173 and 174, and Adriatica di Navigazione v Commission, paragraph 79 above, paragraph 89). 
      
      82      That is the case where there is a gentlemen’s agreement between a number of undertakings representing the faithful expression
         of such a joint intention concerning a restriction of competition. In those circumstances, the question whether the undertakings
         in question considered themselves bound – in law, in fact or morally – to adopt the agreed conduct is irrelevant (HFB and Others v Commission, paragraph 79 above, paragraph 200).
      
      83      As regards, in particular, agreements of an anti-competitive nature which are reached at meetings of competing undertakings,
         the Court of Justice has held that Article 81(1) EC was infringed where those meetings had as their object the restriction,
         prevention or distortion of competition and were thus intended to organise artificially the operation of the market (Joined
         Cases C‑238/99 P, C‑244/99 P, C‑245/99 P, C‑247/99 P, C‑250/99 P to C‑252/99 P and C‑254/99 P Limburgse Vinyl Maatschappij and Others v Commission [2002] ECR I‑8375, paragraphs 508 and 509).
      
      84      The Court considers that BPB’s explanation regarding the object of the London meeting satisfies the criterion laid down by
         the case‑law referred to above. BPB’s statements suffice to show that Knauf and BPB both expressed their intention to put
         an end to a price war and therefore to restrict competition. 
      
      85      Furthermore, it must be recalled that, where an undertaking participates, even without taking an active part, in meetings
         between undertakings with an anti-competitive object and does not publicly distance itself from what occurred at those meetings,
         thus giving the impression to the other participants that it subscribes to the results of the meetings and will act in conformity
         with them, it may be considered as established that it participates in the cartel resulting from those meetings (HFB and Others v Commission, paragraph 79 above, paragraph 137). 
      
      86      Furthermore, the anti‑competitive object of the London meeting is confirmed by the exchange of information which the undertakings
         carried out after that meeting. According to recital 58 of the contested decision, BPB stated, in its reply to the second
         request for information, the following:
      
      ‘[A]t that meeting [Mr [A] and the cousins of the Knauf family] agreed to exchange sales volume information for 1991, to give
         themselves a reliable basis going forward to monitor whether this understanding was effective (i.e. simply to give each other
         a more accurate picture of the overall size of the market and thus their own market share). This was necessary because there
         were no reliable industry statistics.’ 
      
      87      BPB’s arguments that it was at most a mere attempt at an agreement must fail. The fact that BPB and Knauf expressed their
         common intention to put an end to the price war and to stabilise the markets in question constitutes an agreement for the
         purposes of Article 81(1) EC.
      
      88      Further, as the quotation at paragraph 86 above demonstrates, BPB and Knauf executed their plan by implementing that agreement
         through the exchange of information on sales volumes on the four markets concerned. If those undertakings did not consider
         that they had concluded an agreement to put an end to the price war and to stabilise the markets concerned, they would not
         have needed to monitor the markets by exchanging information on sales volumes. 
      
      89      The applicant’s arguments that the Commission has not shown that there had been stability of prices or market shares cannot
         invalidate that conclusion. 
      
      90      In this respect, for the purposes of applying Article 81(1) EC, it is sufficient that the object of an agreement should be
         to restrict, prevent or distort competition irrespective of the actual effects of that agreement. Consequently, in the case
         of agreements reached at meetings of competing undertakings, that provision is infringed where those meetings have such an
         object and are thus intended to organise artificially the operation of the market. In such a case, the liability of a particular
         undertaking in the infringement is properly established where it participated in those meetings with knowledge of their object,
         even if it did not proceed to implement any of the measures agreed at those meetings. The greater or lesser degree of regular
         participation by the undertaking in the meetings and of completeness of its implementation of the measures agreed is relevant
         not to the establishment of its liability but rather to the extent of that liability and thus to the severity of the penalty
         (Joined Cases C‑189/02 P, C‑202/02 P, C‑205/02 P to C‑208/02 P and C‑213/02 P Dansk Rørindustri and Others v Commission [2005] ECR I‑5425, paragraph 145). Undertakings which conclude an agreement whose purpose is to restrict competition cannot,
         in principle, avoid the application of Article 81(1) EC by claiming that their agreement was not intended to have an appreciable
         effect on competition. 
      
      91      Moreover, BPB’s assertion that the London meeting did not have any effects is contradicted by its reply to the statement of
         objections, in which it stated that there had been a turning point in prices in 1992. BPB also admits that the London meeting
         may have been a factor in accelerating the end of the price war. However, it submits that the commercial and economic reasons
         set out in the application show that it was not the only cause.
      
      92      The Court considers that the applicant’s admission that the London meeting was a factor in accelerating the end of the price
         war supports the interpretation that the object of the London meeting was anti‑competitive. Even if there were other economic
         reasons which prompted the end of the price war, that does not call in question the anti‑competitive object of the London
         meeting, which was to raise prices and to reduce the intensity of the competition between the undertakings concerned. 
      
      93      Lastly, account must be taken of the fact that the applicant stated, in its reply to the statement of objections, that it
         did not object to the Commission’s categorising that meeting as an infringement of Article 81(1) EC. It also admitted, in
         its reply to an oral question put by the Court, that the London meeting constituted an infringement of Article 81(1) EC. 
      
      94      It follows that the Commission was right to find that, at the London meeting, BPB and Knauf had expressed their common intention
         to put an end to the price war and to stabilise the market concerned. This complaint cannot therefore be upheld. 
      
       Exchanges of information concerning quantities sold in Germany, France, the Benelux and the United Kingdom 
       Arguments of the parties
      95      The applicant admits that, either at the London meeting or some time later in the same year, Mr [A] and the cousins of the
         Knauf family agreed to exchange highly aggregated sales volume data for 1991. However, Mr [A] said that that had been done
         to enable him to assess whether there was any ‘new mood’ in the industry, by giving him a more accurate picture of the size
         of the market and thus of the applicant’s own market share. The applicant also admits that those information exchanges may
         have contributed to ending the price war. However, the applicant denies that the exchanges decided upon by Mr [D] – director
         of Gyproc and CEO of BPB from 1994 to 1999 – as from 1993 had any bearing on the first two annual information exchanges. The
         applicant also denies that those exchanges were a method of monitoring any agreement or understanding between producers. In
         this respect, the applicant claims that the Commission produced no evidence of any command and control structure in relation
         to the implementation of the cartel. The applicant states that it would have been informed by customers if it was being undercut
         on price by its competitors and would not have waited months to learn, by the exchange of information, of developments in
         market shares. 
      
      96      The applicant states that the Commission ignores the evidence concerning the nature of the data which was actually exchanged.
         In that connection, the applicant states that exchanges were initially annual, then half-yearly, but never more than quarterly.
         Moreover, the data were highly aggregated, being the total square metre surface area of all plasterboard products sold in
         the period in question, of all thicknesses, dimensions and specifications, expressed as a single figure. It also observes
         that there are enormous price variations between products. Moreover, the information related to national markets and, in the
         case of the Benelux, was wider than that. Furthermore, the information was not exchanged at regular intervals. For those reasons,
         the applicant considers that the exchanges could not constitute a mechanism for close surveillance of the market. 
      
      97      The applicant considers that the Commission’s argument is also undermined by the fact that market shares developed considerably
         over the period in question. In addition, it states that price cutting had taken place. Moreover, the Commission has produced
         no evidence of any systematic attempt to adjust market shares or prices. The applicant takes the view that all these factors
         are solid evidence of the lack of any cartel in this case. 
      
      98      The Commission states that the applicant does not deny the existence of those exchanges, but contests their purpose. It considers
         that it responded in detail to those arguments in recitals 104 to 170 of the contested decision. 
      
      99      The Commission states that the argument relating to the absence of any ‘command and control’ structure is irrelevant. The
         case-law shows that the fact that no measures are taken to force undertakings to adhere to agreements does not mean that there
         is no infringement. The absence of evidence of such measures simply shows that no retaliatory measures were necessary.
      
      100    The Commission repeats that it has never asserted that the cartel completely excluded all competition or that there were fixed
         quotas or fixed market shares. The important achievement of the cartel was overall market equilibrium and stability, not necessarily
         static market shares in particular markets. 
      
       Findings of the Court
      101    It should be noted that the applicant stated, in its reply to the statement of objections, that it did not object to the Commission’s
         categorising those exchanges of information as an infringement of Article 81(1) EC. It also admitted, in its reply to a written
         question put by the Court, that the exchanges of information concerning quantities sold in Germany, France, the Benelux and
         the United Kingdom constituted an infringement of Article 81(1) EC. The applicant none the less disputes certain assessments
         made by the Commission in the contested decision. 
      
      102    BPB admits that, either at the London meeting or some time later in the same year, Mr [A] and the cousins of the Knauf family
         agreed to exchange aggregated sales volume data for 1991. Mr [A] said that that was done to enable him to assess whether there
         was any ‘new mood’ in the industry, by giving him a more accurate picture of the size of the market and thus of BPB’s own
         market share. 
      
      103    BPB also admitted that the information exchanges effected by Mr [A] in 1992 and 1993 in relation to the 1991 and 1992 data
         may have contributed to ending the price war. However, BPB denies that those information exchanges were a monitoring mechanism
         for a wider anti-competitive purpose.
      
      104    BPB also admits that, under Mr [D]’s direction, the information exchanges on sales volumes on the four markets concerned became
         half‑yearly from 1993 and quarterly from 1995. None the less, it claims that the exchanges organised by Mr [D] were unrelated
         to the first two annual exchanges of information effected by Mr [A]. 
      
      105    Thus, since the applicant has admitted the existence of the information exchange in question, its arguments seek only to call
         in question the Commission’s legal assessment of undisputed facts. 
      
      106    According to the case-law, agreements on the exchange of information are incompatible with the rules on competition if they
         reduce or remove the degree of uncertainty as to the operation of the market in question with the result that competition
         between undertakings is restricted (Case C‑238/05 ASNEF-EQUIFAX and Administración del Estado [2006] ECR I‑11125, paragraph 51).
      
      107    It is inherent in the Treaty provisions on competition that every economic operator must determine autonomously the policy
         which it intends to pursue on the common market. Thus, according to that case-law, such a requirement of autonomy precludes
         any direct or indirect contact between economic operators of such a kind as either to influence the conduct on the market
         of an actual or potential competitor or to reveal to such a competitor the conduct which an operator has decided to follow
         itself or contemplates adopting on the market, where the object or effect of those contacts is to give rise to conditions
         of competition which do not correspond to the normal conditions of the market in question, taking into account the nature
         of the products or the services provided, the size and number of the undertakings and also the volume of the market (ASNEF-EQUIFAX and Administración del Estado, paragraph 106 above, paragraph 52).
      
      108    As regards the lawfulness of the exchange of information, it is apparent from the case‑law that, on a truly competitive market,
         the fact that an economic operator takes into account information on the operation of the market, made available to it under
         the information exchange system, in order to adjust its conduct on the market, is not likely, having regard to the atomised
         nature of the supply, to reduce or remove for the other operators all uncertainty about the foreseeable nature of its competitors’
         conduct. However, on a highly concentrated oligopolistic market, the exchange of information on the market is such as to enable
         operators to know the market positions and strategies of their competitors and thus to impair appreciably the competition
         which exists between the operators (Case C‑7/95 P Deere v Commission [1998] ECR I‑3111, paragraphs 88 and 90).
      
      109    Subject to proof to the contrary, which the economic operators concerned must adduce, the presumption must be that the undertakings
         taking part in the concerted arrangements and remaining active on the market take account of the information exchanged with
         their competitors when determining their conduct on that market. That is all the more the case where the undertakings concert
         together on a regular basis over a long period (HFB and Others v Commission, paragraph 79 above, paragraph 216).
      
      110    In the present case, the plasterboard market was oligopolostic and the applicant does not dispute that this was the case.
         It is therefore necessary to ascertain whether, in the light of that market characteristic, the exchanges of information reduced
         or removed the degree of uncertainty of the undertakings concerned as to the operation of the market in question and thus
         restricted competition on that market.
      
      111    The applicant takes the view that, as organised, the exchange of information made it possible to achieve only one objective,
         namely to check in broad terms the individual estimates of the market conditions and, in particular, the volume of that market.
         
      
      112    Such an explanation is not convincing. It is apparent from the explanation given by Mr [D] in his statement of 9 July 2001
         in order to justify the exchanges of information that, whilst the data were useful to see the size of the market, they also
         made it possible to determine market trends and competitors’ market shares so that ‘one was not operating completely in the
         dark’. 
      
      113    For the same reasons, the applicant’s argument that the market was transparent and the data could be collected on the market
         must be rejected.
      
      114    That finding is borne out by BPB’s reply of 28 October 1999 to the second request for information, referred to in recital
         58 of the contested decision, according to which:
      
      ‘[The representatives of BPB and Knauf] agreed to exchange sales volume information for 1991, to give themselves a reliable
         basis going forward to monitor whether this understanding was effective (i.e. simply to give each other a more accurate picture
         of the overall size of the market and thus their own market share). This was necessary because there were no reliable industry
         statistics.’ 
      
      115    In this respect, proof of the collusory nature of the exchange of information is even more cogent in the light of BPB’s reply
         to the statement of objections. According to 106 of the contested decision:
      
      ‘BPB subsequently specified that the objective of the agreement to exchange information with Knauf was to provide Mr [A] with
         “a basis to assess whether there was a new mood in the industry”, i.e. that “the information exchange, at a high level, would
         provide the degree of mutual assurance that the price war was ending”. BPB has moreover explicitly acknowledged that the purpose
         of the information exchanges effected by Mr [A] was to put an end to the fierce competition prevalent in the plasterboard
         industry in the early 1990s: “the subsequent two exchanges of historical data effected by Mr [A] may have served, and have
         been intended to serve, to assist the ending of the price war”.’ 
      
      116    The applicant’s argument that there was no restriction of competition in the absence of any informative value of the sales
         data exchanged, given that the figures had been communicated in a very global and imprecise form without being broken down
         according to the different types of plasterboard, is irrelevant in so far as the information exchanges between the undertakings
         in question were intended to monitor that their respective market shares remained stable or, at the very least, did not diminish.
         Since the applicant and Knauf had expressed a common intention to put an end to the price war and to stabilise the markets
         in question at the London meeting, it sufficed, in order to attain that objective, that the undertakings in question knew
         that by terminating the price war they would not lose market shares. To that end, the general sales data, which made it possible
         to calculate market shares, were sufficient. That also explains why the figures did not need to be broken down according to
         the different types of plasterboard. 
      
      117    As regards the applicant’s argument that the exchange of data was not effected at regular intervals and, for that reason,
         it was not a monitoring mechanism, it is clear that the anti‑competitive nature of that exchange of information, the objective
         of which – as clearly described by the applicant itself in its reply to the statement of objections – was to put an end to
         the price war, can in no way be called in question.
      
      118    As regards BPB’s argument distinguishing Mr [A]’s information exchanges in 1991 and 1992 from those of Mr [D], it is a mere
         assertion which is devoid of any real foundation. In his statement, Mr [A] said that he had counselled Mr [D] in 1993 against
         making the exchanges too frequent, which shows that both were well aware that those exchanges were being made. The mere fact
         that the exchanges of information were effected by two different persons is thus explained by the change of person at the
         head of BPB. Moreover, the reason for those exchanges of information, in particular as regards their object, is identical.
         In his account of the exchanges which he effected from 1993, Mr [D] states that, even in highly aggregated form, the information
         was useful to see the size of the market and the trends and that knowledge of competitors’ market shares meant that ‘one was
         not operating completely in the dark’. 
      
      119    In conclusion, the collusive nature of the exchanges of information concerning quantities sold in Germany, France, the Benelux
         and the United Kingdom from 1992 to 1998 is sufficiently established.
      
       The exchanges of information on sales volumes in the United Kingdom 
       Arguments of the parties
      120    The applicant maintains that the purpose of the United Kingdom information exchange was to have a better view of the total
         size of the United Kingdom market for plasterboard and of its market share.
      
      121    The applicant claims that, even if the data exchanged were monthly data on highly aggregated sales volumes, the exchanges
         were not monthly but were sporadic and related to information concerning several months. 
      
      122    The Commission replies that it does not claim that the exchanges occurred on a monthly basis but simply that they remained
         remarkably consistent over time (seven successive years) and that the assertions that the exchange was an irregular ad hoc
         exchange are contradicted by the content of the table kept by Mr [N], managing director of British Gypsum (‘BG’), the subsidiary
         of BPB in the United Kingdom, from which the existence of a regular flow of information can be inferred. 
      
       Findings of the Court
      123    It should first be noted that the applicant stated in its reply to the statement of objections that it did not object to the
         Commission’s categorising the exchanges of data on sales volumes in the United Kingdom as an infringement of Article 81(1)
         EC. It also admitted in its reply to a written question put by the Court that those exchanges had taken place from 1992 until
         the beginning of 1998 and constituted an infringement of Article 81(1) EC. 
      
      124    Next, it should be noted that in response to a written question of the Court the Commission confirmed that the exchange of
         information on sales on the United Kingdom market and that on the sales of the four markets concerned were both elements of
         the single and continuous infringement, even if their anti‑competitive effects might have duplicated and mutually reinforced
         one another in so far as they related to the United Kingdom market. Given that the applicant disputes the object and the frequency
         of the exchanges of sales volume data on the United Kingdom market, it is necessary to consider whether the contested decision
         is vitiated by errors regarding that exchange.
      
      125    As regards the object of the exchange of sales volume data on the United Kingdom market, the Commission found, at recital
         171 of the contested decision, that it was identical to that of the exchange of information on sales volumes on the four markets
         concerned. However, the applicant asserts that its object was to have a better view of the total size of the United Kingdom
         market for plasterboard and of its market share. 
      
      126    The applicant’s explanation does not alter the anti‑competitive nature of the information exchange, having regard to the general
         context of the infringement in question, which was characterised by the pursuit of the objective, expressed at the London
         meeting, of putting an end to the price war. 
      
      127    The applicant’s assertion that the fact that the data were compiled on a monthly basis in the tables does not show that the
         exchange of those data also took place with the same frequency is immaterial in the present case. Even if the sales volume
         data were exchanged less frequently, that would not invalidate the conclusion that such an exchange was anti­‑competitive
         for the same reasons as those set out regarding the exchange of data on the four markets concerned. In any event, the applicant
         has not adduced any evidence showing that, although the data were compiled monthly, the exchange did not take place monthly.
         In those circumstances, it must be concluded that the applicant has failed to show that the Commission’s finding at recital
         194 of the contested decision, that the systematic and detailed nature of Mr [N]’s table was based on a regular flow of information,
         is vitiated by error.
      
      128    It follows that the Commission’s assessment concerning the exchange of sales volume data on the United Kingdom market is not
         vitiated by any error.
      
       Exchanges of information on price rises in the United Kingdom from 1992 to 1998 
       Arguments of the parties
      129    The applicant claims that the Commission made no finding that the parallel price rises were other than independently arrived
         at. 
      
      130    The evidence relied on by the Commission consists, first, of a conversation in 1996 between the regional directors of Knauf
         and BG, second, a conversation in 1998 between Lafarge’s sales director and a member of BG’s sales staff and, third, one or
         two communications from Mr [N] to his opposite numbers to inform them of price rises. 
      
      131    The applicant maintains that the Commission attached unjustified importance to those isolated events. Moreover, the first
         two contacts were two years apart and the discussions took place in the course of social events. In addition, there were only
         one or two communications by Mr [N], and, contrary to the Commission’s allegations, it was not a question of exchanges of
         information but of unilateral communications. 
      
      132    The applicant contests the Commission’s conclusion that those contacts corroborate the existence of a single and continuous
         infringement. The applicant submits that they took place only between November 1996 and March 1998 and related only to the
         United Kingdom. 
      
      133    The Commission states that it never alleged that prices had been agreed or negotiated. It takes the view that the very fact
         that the contacts concerning certain price rises were reported internally indicates their importance.
      
      134    The Commission considers, referring to recitals 471 to 477 of the contested decision, that exchange of information to be a
         concerted practice which was part of the particular manifestations of the complex and continuous agreement having as its object
         the restriction of competition at least in the four main European plasterboard markets. 
      
       Findings of the Court
      135    As is apparent from the application and an examination of BPB’s cooperation, it was BPB which informed the Commission of those
         exchanges on price rises in the United Kingdom. Moreover, the facts mentioned in the contested decision are not contested
         by BPB. 
      
      136    Account must also be taken of the fact that the applicant stated in its reply to the statement of objections that it did not
         object to the Commission’s categorising those contacts as an infringement of Article 81(1) EC. In its reply to a written question
         of the Court, the applicant also admitted that the fact that Mr [N] had, once or twice, informed Knauf and Lafarge of the
         list price increases in the United Kingdom constituted an infringement of Article 81(1) EC.
      
      137    However, BPB attempts to qualify the anti‑competitive nature of those exchanges by stating that the conversations which took
         place at the golf days were just a report of industry gossip and that the memoranda recording them present this information
         as such. Further, the information was imparted unilaterally. Lastly, it submits that the price rises would have been known
         in any event through market intelligence and that the exchanges of information were merely the communication of decisions
         which had already been made. Moreover, the communication related only to list prices and did not reflect the ‘net net’ prices
         (net of discounts). 
      
      138    It is apparent from recitals 198 to 200 of the contested decision that, as regards the period prior to 7 September 1996, the
         price rise announcements were virtually simultaneous in four cases. Thus, BG’s announcement on 21 July 1992 (with effect from
         the end of August 1992) was followed by Lafarge’s (Redland’s) announcement of 31 July 1992 (with effect from 31 August 1992).
         Knauf announced its new prices on 3 August 1992 (with a new price list for September 1992). 
      
      139    In November 1993 BPB announced a 12% rise with effect from January 1994. Lafarge followed this announced rise but Knauf did
         not follow it in full. 
      
      140    On 29 September 1994 Knauf announced a rise of approximately 6.5% with effect from 1 March 1995 and on 2 December 1994 BPB
         announced a 9% rise with effect from 27 February 1995. That rise was followed by the announcement of an identical rise by
         Lafarge on 6 January 1995, with effect from the same date. 
      
      141    On 22 September 1995, BG announced a 12% price rise for standard board to enter into force on 1 January 1996. This announcement
         was followed by Lafarge, which announced the same increase on 13 October 1995 with effect from 1 January 1996 and by Knauf,
         which announced the same increase on 27 October 1995 with effect from the same date.
      
      142    Thus, as regards the period prior to 7 September 1996, the price rises of BPB, Lafarge and Knauf succeeded one another at
         very close intervals or were even simultaneous.
      
      143    It must therefore be ascertained whether the near-simultaneity of the price rise announcements and the parallelism of the
         prices announced, as found, constitute a sound, precise and consistent body of evidence of prior concertation designed to
         inform the competing undertakings of the price rises. Parallel conduct cannot be regarded as furnishing proof of concertation
         unless concertation constitutes the only plausible explanation for such conduct. It is necessary to bear in mind that, although
         Article 81 EC prohibits any form of collusion which distorts competition, it does not deprive economic operators of the right
         to adapt themselves intelligently to the existing and anticipated conduct of their competitors (Joined Cases C‑89/85, C‑104/85,
         C‑114/85, C‑116/85, C‑117/85 and C‑125/85 to C‑129/85 Ahlström Osakeyhtiö and Others v Commission [1993] ECR I‑1307, paragraph 71).
      
      144    In the present case, even if the intervals between the various price rise announcements may have enabled the undertakings
         to ascertain those price rises by information from the market and even if those rises were not always exactly of the same
         level, the near-simultaneity of the price rise announcements and the parallelism of the prices announced amount to strong
         evidence of concerted action prior to those announcements, since those rises were made in a context characterised by the fact
         that, as the Commission found in the contested decision, the applicant and Knauf agreed at the London meeting at the beginning
         of 1992 to put an end to the price war on the four European markets.
      
      145    In any event, the fact remains that, as regards the exchange of data on price increases on the United Kingdom market, the
         Commission concluded, at recital 476 of the contested decision, only that there were contacts – acknowledged by BPB, Knauf
         and Lafarge – which accompanied certain price increases, referring in this respect to recital 211 of the contested decision.
         Otherwise, as is apparent from recital 210 of that decision, the Commission stated that it could only note the parallel behaviour
         between undertakings which were also engaged in other collusive contacts, without inferring from this that that parallel behaviour
         had necessarily been preceded by concerted action. Further, by its use of the word ‘nevertheless’ in the English, French and
         Dutch versions of recital 211 of the contested decision, it clearly placed that mere parallelism in the context of the admitted
         existence of contacts preceding the price rise announcements. 
      
      146    As regards the period after 7 September 1996, the existence of contacts between the competitors on prices rises in the United
         Kingdom is demonstrated by the following documentary evidence.
      
      147    First, it is apparent from an internal BG memorandum that, during the weekend of 7 and 8 September 1996, Knauf announced that
         it would follow the BG price increase initiative when BG’s intentions were expressly stated. As is clear from recital 201
         of the contested decision, that discussion took place before BG sent out announcements of a price rise on 9 September 1996.
         
      
      148    Further, that increase was followed, on 20 September 1996, by that of Lafarge. 
      
      149    Second, the near-simultaneity of the price rise announcements and the parallelism of the prices announced continued. Thus
         the Commission found, at recitals 203 and 204 of the contested decision, that on 3 June 1997 BG had announced a rise of 3.8%
         for standard board with effect from 1 August 1997. Lafarge announced a rise of 3.7% with effect from 4 August 1997 and Knauf
         announced a rise of 3.7% with effect from the same date as Lafarge. Further, on 27 January 1998, BG announced a rise of 4.4%
         with effect from 1 April 1998. Lafarge announced a rise of 4.1% with effect from 6 April 1998 and Knauf announced an identical
         rise with effect from 1 April 1998. 
      
      150    Third, according to recital 205 of the contested decision, before the announcement on 8 September 1998 of BG’s 5% price rise
         with effect from 1 November 1998, a Lafarge representative mentioned to a member of British Gypsum’s staff that, for budgetary
         reasons, Lafarge had decided not to follow the price increase planned for the beginning of January of the following year.
         However, if the undertakings concerned had not agreed to exchange information on price rises, Lafarge would not have needed
         to inform the BG representative that it was not going to follow the planned increase. 
      
      151    Fourth, BPB acknowledged what it calls ‘isolated instances’ when Mr [N] had telephoned the managing directors of Lafarge and
         Knauf in the United Kingdom to inform them of BG’s pricing intentions and the planned range of increases (recital 207 of the
         contested decision). Even though BPB does not indicate even the approximate date of these telephone calls, and even though
         it terms them ‘pure courtesy calls’, they show that the competing undertakings were in contact regarding price rises. 
      
      152    In those circumstances, the Commission was right to find, at recital 477 of the contested decision, that the contacts on price
         rises on the United Kingdom market constituted a concerted practice prohibited by Article 81(1) EC. 
      
      153    That finding cannot be invalidated by the argument that it was unilateral conduct. It is true that the concept of concerted
         practice does in fact imply the existence of reciprocal contacts. However, that condition is met where the disclosure by one
         competitor to another of its future intentions or conduct on the market is requested or, at the very least, accepted by the
         latter (Cement, paragraph 32 above, paragraph 1849).
      
      154    As regards the applicant’s claims that the price information transmitted was known by the customers of the undertaking concerned
         before it was transmitted to the competitors and that, therefore, the information disclosed could already have been collected
         on the market by those competitors, it should be recalled that the mere fact of receiving information concerning competitors,
         which an independent operator preserves as business secrets, is sufficient to demonstrate the existence of an anti‑competitive
         intention (Joined Cases T‑204/98 and T‑207/98 Tate & Lyle and Others v Commission [2001] ECR II‑2035, paragraph 66). Moreover, the discussions for which the Commission found direct evidence or whose existence
         was acknowledged by the applicant occurred before the official price rise announcements. 
      
      155    In view of the circumstances of the present case, the Commission has shown to the requisite legal standard that the three
         undertakings informed one another of price rises on the United Kingdom market during the period 1992 to 1998. 
      
       The stabilisation of German market shares 
       Arguments of the parties
      156    The applicant admits that the objective of the Versailles meeting was to arrive at an agreement to stabilise German market
         shares. However, that attempt was unsuccessful. It claims that Gyproc’s subsequent statement supports its statement.
      
      157    The applicant also admits that at the meetings in Brussels and The Hague the discussions continued to focus on the market
         shares of each undertaking in question in Germany. Further, the latter discussions were preceded by a further exchange of
         market share data for the first four months of 1998. However, those discussions likewise did not yield any results. 
      
      158    The applicant states that although the parties met and had a common interest in establishing stability in the German market,
         they did not make a common commitment. However, the applicable law requires such a commitment. The applicant claims that undertakings
         may share a common view of what they would like to see occur but unless an undertaking, by contact and conduct, acts in a
         manner which unmistakably conveys to the other that it proposes to act in a certain way and that it feels under an obligation
         to do so, that does not constitute an agreement in law. It contends that the Commission cannot consider that negotiations
         are equivalent to an agreement. 
      
      159    The applicant claims that the Commission’s approach consists in asserting that a common objective is evidenced by ‘manifestations’
         of an agreement within the meaning of Article 81(1) EC and that the ‘manifestations’ themselves are evidence of a common objective.
         According to the applicant, that argument is devoid of any legal merit. 
      
      160    The applicant submits that the Commission was wrong to consider that the information exchange system that the undertakings
         in question had organised in November 1996 with the assistance of an independent expert (‘the information exchange system’)
         was more sophisticated and that it supplied them with more accurate and verifiable information than the other exchanges. It
         states that the producers provided information to the independent expert, but that he did not carry out any verification of
         it. Moreover, the exchanges within the information exchange system were no more frequent than those between the CEOs of the
         undertakings in question, both having been quarterly in the period from 1996 to 1998. Moreover, the exchanges made within
         the information exchange system provided the undertakings in question with less information than those between the CEOs, given
         that the independent expert provided those undertakings only with a total market size figure.
      
      161    It also claims that the fact that the information exchange system was launched after the Versailles meeting was a coincidence.
      
      162    The Commission contends that even if the undertakings did not succeed in concluding an agreement as to how the German market
         could be shared between them, they expressed a common wish to restrict competition in the plasterboard market by sharing the
         German market or, at least, stabilising it. According to it, the mere disclosure by an undertaking of the fact that it does
         not want to increase its market share is sufficient to inform competitors of an essential element in its strategy and is manifestly
         anti-competitive. It submits that the undertakings did feel bound to act in a particular way, as demonstrated by the continuous
         discussions in that sense. 
      
      163    The Commission submits that the only plausible explanation for an information exchange which the participants wish to keep
         secret and which is based on figures allegedly of limited value for defining future strategy is that there is a tacit agreement
         between the undertakings in question to respect traditional flows. 
      
      164    The Commission considers that even if market shares in Germany continued to fluctuate after the Versailles meeting in 1996,
         those fluctuations were minimal and are consistent with its findings, in so far as it never maintained that there was a strict
         market sharing agreement. 
      
      165    The Commission states that even if the information exchange system itself is not contrary to Community law, it should not
         be examined in isolation but in the light of the fact that it was set up to supply more accurate and verifiable information.
         Moreover, BPB’s assertion that the information provided was no more accurate than that already being exchanged does not explain
         why BPB and the other undertakings participated in the system. Furthermore, the explanation put forward by BPB, that the undertakings
         wanted an accurate measure of the size of the German market, merely supports the Commission’s interpretation. 
      
       Findings of the Court
      166    It is apparent from the applicant’s arguments that it does not dispute the existence of the Versailles, Brussels and The Hague
         meetings. Further, it admits that it participated in those meetings and discussed the situation on the German market. It also
         acknowledges that a proposal was made at the Versailles meeting in order to arrive at an agreement to stabilise German market
         shares at their 1995 levels. 
      
      167    However, it submits that the Commission has not shown that the undertakings in question made a common commitment. In its submission,
         the applicable law requires that there be such a commitment, but in the present case there were merely negotiations with a
         view to securing an agreement. 
      
      168    Consequently, the question on which the applicant and the Commission disagree concerns the legal classification of the Versailles,
         Brussels and The Hague meetings and the information exchange system.
      
      169    As regards the applicant’s argument seeking to demonstrate that there was no agreement on German market shares, it should
         be noted that in the contested decision the Commission found, at recital 469, in fine, that ‘an agreement [had been] concluded between the [undertakings concerned], who aimed to divide up the German market between
         them or at least to stabilise it, this agreement being a particular manifestation of the complex, continuous agreement having
         as its object the restriction of competition on the plasterboard market at least in the four major European markets’. Moreover,
         it is apparent from recitals 462, 463, 465 and 469 of the contested decision that the Commission found that, irrespective
         of whether such an agreement had been concluded or not, the undertakings in question, by expressing their common intention
         to divide up the German market between them or at least to stabilise it, had concluded an agreement within the meaning of
         Article 81(1) EC.
      
      170    Thus, even if the Commission had not succeeded in showing that the undertakings penalised had concluded an agreement, in the
         strict sense of the term, as to how the German market could be shared between them, it would suffice if it were clear from
         undisputed facts that the undertakings in question knowingly substituted for the risks of competition practical cooperation
         between them by remaining in direct contact with a view to stabilising the German market. Consequently, it is necessary to
         ascertain whether that is the case here. 
      
      171    The existence of the Versailles meeting of June 1996 is not disputed, nor the fact that, during that meeting, the undertakings
         in question disclosed their real sales figures for 1995, that they discussed the stabilisation of their German market shares
         and that Gyproc was not satisfied with the market share that the other undertakings were offering it. 
      
      172    BPB also admits the existence of the Brussels meeting of 4 December 1997, but states that it was also an opportunity to discuss
         the stabilisation of the German market. 
      
      173    Nor does BPB dispute that The Hague meeting of May 1998 took place. However, it submits that, even if the object of the talks
         was the situation in Germany, they did not yield any concrete results. In this respect, it is apparent from recital 257 of
         the contested decision that, according to Gyproc, the participants exchanged their figures on sales volumes in Germany for
         the first four months of 1998, that each participant mentioned the share of the German market he wished to have and that,
         since the total of those market shares represented 101%, the participants proposed that Gyproc limit its market share to 11%,
         but Gyproc refused. 
      
      174    Consequently, it follows from the foregoing that, even if a specific agreement on the sharing of the German market could not
         be concluded either at the Versailles meeting or at the subsequent Brussels and The Hague meetings, the four undertakings
         in question expressed a common intention to stabilise the German market, and therefore to restrict competition. Thus, the
         Versailles meeting proves the existence of an agreement on the principle of sharing the German market between BPB, Knauf,
         Lafarge and Gyproc, as the Commission asserted at recital 264 of the contested decision.
      
      175    It is not contested by BPB that, at the Versailles meeting, notwithstanding the position adopted by Gyproc, the three other
         undertakings, Knauf and Lafarge and itself, informed each other of the market shares they agreed to and that those market
         shares corresponded to the shares those undertakings actually held. In this respect, it should also be recalled that the undertakings
         do not dispute having exchanged their sales figures for 1995 at the Versailles meeting. 
      
      176    Account must also be taken of the information exchange system. The existence of that system supports the Commission’s contention
         that those undertakings wished to stabilise the German market. Each producer gave its figures to the independent expert on
         a confidential basis and the results were compiled by it, giving an aggregate figure, which was then sent to the participants.
         This figure enabled each producer to calculate its own market share, but not that of the others. The figures were supplied
         every quarter and concerned the sales figures of each producer. In addition, the producers supplied the independent expert,
         on a confidential basis, with the figures for January to December 1995 and for January to September 1996.
      
      177    The information exchange system thus enabled the undertakings in question to check whether their market shares on the German
         market were remaining relatively stable. 
      
      178    As regards the legal assessment of that situation, it must be recalled that the disclosure of information to one’s competitors
         in preparation for a cartel suffices to prove the existence of a concerted practice within the meaning of Article 81 EC (see,
         to that effect, Case T‑148/89 Tréfilunion v Commission [1995] ECR II‑1063, paragraph 82). 
      
      179    The concept of a concerted practice within the meaning of Article 81(1) EC refers to a form of coordination between undertakings
         which, without being taken to the stage where an agreement properly so called has been concluded, knowingly substitutes for
         the risks of competition practical cooperation between them (Suiker Unie and Others v Commission, paragraph 81 above, paragraph 26, and Ahlström Osakeyhtiö and Others v Commission, paragraph 143 above, paragraph 63).
      
      180    The criteria of coordination and cooperation necessary for determining the existence of a concerted practice, far from requiring
         an actual ‘plan’ to have been worked out, are to be understood in the light of the concept inherent in the provisions of the
         EC Treaty on competition, according to which each economic operator must determine independently the policy which it intends
         to adopt on the common market and the conditions which it intends to offer to its customers (Deere v Commission, paragraph 108 above, paragraph 86, and Case C‑194/99 P Thyssen Stahl v Commission [2003] ECR I‑10821, paragraph 82). 
      
      181    While it is true that this requirement of independence does not deprive operators of the right to adapt themselves intelligently
         to the existing or anticipated conduct of their competitors, it does, however, strictly preclude any direct or indirect contact
         between them, the object or effect of which is to create conditions of competition which do not correspond to the normal conditions
         of the market in question, regard being had to the nature of the products or services offered, the size and number of the
         undertakings and the volume of the said market (Deere v Commission, paragraph 108 above, paragraph 87, and Thyssen Stahl v Commission, paragraph 180 above, paragraph 83). 
      
      182    Further, as the Court of First Instance held in Cement, paragraph 32 above (paragraph 1852), in order to prove that there has been a concerted practice, it is not necessary to
         show that the competitor in question has formally undertaken, in respect of one or several other competitors, to adopt a particular
         course of conduct or that the competitors have colluded over their future conduct on the market. It is sufficient that, by
         its statement of intention, the competitor eliminated or, at the very least, substantially reduced uncertainty as to the conduct
         to expect from it on the market.
      
      183    In this respect, the Commission rightly took the view, at recital 466 of the contested decision, that the mere disclosure
         by an undertaking of the fact that it does not want a larger market share than the one it already holds is sufficient to inform
         competitors of an essential element of its strategy. 
      
      184    Moreover, it must be recalled that the market in question is a highly concentrated oligopolistic one. On such a market, the
         exchange of information is liable to enable undertakings to be aware of the market positions and business strategies of their
         competitors and thus to impair appreciably the competition which exists between economic operators (Deere v Commission, paragraph 106 above, paragraphs 88 to 90, and Thyssen Stahl v Commission, paragraph 180 above, paragraph 84). 
      
      185    Further, as regards the applicant’s argument that the Commission’s reasoning is circular, it must be recalled that all the
         elements of the case in question must be examined, not separately as isolated infringements, but in the overall context, as
         possible elements of a single infringement having as its object the restriction of competition on the plasterboard market
         in the four European markets concerned. According to the case‑law, the items of evidence on which the Commission relies in
         the Decision in order to prove the existence of an infringement of Article 81(1) EC by an undertaking must not be assessed
         separately, but as a whole (see, to that effect, Case 48/69 ICI v Commission [1972] ECR 619, paragraph 68).
      
      186    Moreover, in the light of the general context, the objective of stabilising the markets concerned, the exchange of information
         on the German market enabled the undertakings in question to check that their competitors’ market shares remained stable.
         
      
      187    Lastly, as regards the applicant’s argument that, in the absence of an agreement, the Commission ought at least to have proved
         the effects on the market, it must be recalled that, for the purposes of applying Article 81(1) EC, there is no need to take
         account of the actual effects of an agreement once it appears that its object is to restrict, prevent or distort competition
         within the common market (Aalborg Portland and Others v Commission, paragraph 36 above, paragraph 261).
      
      188    Likewise, a concerted practice falls within Article 81(1) EC even where there are no anti-competitive effects on the market.
         First of all, it follows from the very wording of that provision that, as in the case of agreements between undertakings and
         decisions of associations of undertakings, concerted practices are prohibited, independently of any effect, where they have
         an anti-competitive object (Case C‑105/04 P Nederlandse Federatieve Vereniging voor de Groothandel op Elektrotechnisch Gebied v Commission [2006] ECR I‑8725, paragraphs 137 and 138). 
      
      189    Next, although the very concept of a concerted practice presupposes certain conduct by the participating undertakings on the
         market, it does not necessarily mean that that conduct should produce the specific effect of restricting, preventing or distorting
         competition (Nederlandse Federatieve Vereniging voor de Groothandel op Elektrotechnisch Gebied v Commission, paragraph 188 above, paragraph 139).
      
      190    In the light of the overall context of the case, the Court finds that, on the basis of the undisputed facts, the Commission
         has demonstrated to the requisite legal standard that even if the undertakings in question did not succeed in concluding a
         specific agreement on sharing the German market between them, they did express their common intention to conduct themselves
         on that market in a specific manner, namely to restrict competition by stabilising that market.
      
       Exchanges of information on price rises in Germany 
       Arguments of the parties
      191    The applicant contests the Commission’s allegation that the four producers kept each other informed of their intentions or
         that there was coordination concerning the dates and levels of the planned price increases in the period from the end of 1994
         to September 1998. It considers that the Commission has not adequately proved its allegations. The fact that competition continued
         in the German market shows, on the contrary, that producers continued to operate independently. In any event, the contacts
         in question cannot prove the existence of a common wish or be evidence of an agreement concluded in 1992. 
      
      192    As regards the alleged direct contact that it had with competitors concerning price rises in Germany, BPB stated that it had
         not sent copies of its own price increases to its competitors. As regards the sending by Knauf of its price list to its competitors,
         such information cannot constitute collusion on prices because the letters concerned price rises which were already widely
         known or anticipated in the market. Moreover, list prices were frequently reduced by the granting of discounts. 
      
      193    The applicant disputes that the Lafarge memorandum of 17 December 1996 was drawn up following the discussion of prices between
         Mr [V], commercial director at Rigips, the applicant’s German subsidiary, and Mr [X], managing director of Lafarge Gips. It
         has always denied the existence of that discussion. Moreover, it rejects the Commission’s conclusion that that memorandum
         is evidence of direct contacts between the producers. So far as concerns the parallelism of the price increases, the applicant
         states that, in an oligopolistic market, it is normal for undertakings to follow competitors’ prices and act in parallel,
         at least in respect of list prices. However, competition remained vigorous at the level of net net prices. 
      
      194    With regard to the Lafarge memorandum of 7 October 1998, the applicant considers that it describes the normal mechanism of
         price increases in an oligopolistic market. It submits that the memorandum discloses a number of facts which contradict the
         Commission’s allegations, such as the fact that producers granted discounts even after raising list prices, the fact that
         Rigips announced an increase eight weeks before the date of the memorandum without the other producers following that increase,
         the fact that there was uncertainty about competitors’ reactions to a price increase, the fact that most price increases were
         limited during the previous years and that until 1993–1994 Lafarge attempted to gain market share. 
      
      195    As regards the Knauf internal memorandum of 15 November 1993, the applicant claims that, even if that memorandum recommended
         the adoption of a course of action which might be anti-competitive, that does not mean that that course of action was actually
         adopted.
      
      196    As regards the Rigips internal memorandum of October 1994, the applicant submits that the phrase ‘it is expected that the
         prices will be frozen on this level’ does not disclose any collusion but merely records Rigips’ assessment of the outlook
         for price developments.
      
      197    As regards the price increase of 1 December 1995, the applicant denies that the failure of that rise was the reason for the
         Versailles meeting. It contends that the fall in prices from December 1995 to June 1996 is in fact evidence of the absence,
         rather than the existence, of an agreement. 
      
      198    As regards the September 1997 price increase, the applicant denies having participated in the attempts made by other producers
         to avoid ‘poaching’ of customers. The applicant submits that, even if the producers had discussions on market sharing, those
         discussions did not yield any results. Thereafter, competition continued in the market and, therefore, the proposed September
         1997 list price increase failed.
      
      199    As regards the September 1998 price rise, the applicant maintains that it did not participate in any collusion between producers.
         It argues that the Commission’s only evidence regarding it is the fact that it received a copy of a letter from Knauf concerning
         a price increase. However, that adds nothing to the admission by Knauf that it occasionally sent letters to its competitors
         informing them of a price increase. In addition, it denies having received a communication from Gyproc. Thus, the Commission’s
         assertion that the September 1998 price increase constituted a further manifestation of collusion in which the applicant participated
         in the German market is unsupported by evidence.
      
      200    As regards the Lafarge memorandum of 7 October 1998, the Commission contends that it was used not to decide whether there
         were contacts between the undertakings in question but as evidence of the fact that price increases followed a particular
         pattern. The fact that the announced price increases were not always reflected in achieved increases in transaction prices
         does not mean that the contacts established were not illegal or that they had no effect. It also considers that the fact that
         Lafarge tried to gain market share until 1993–1994 does not call in question its findings in that respect, since it merely
         found that there was coordination of price increases from the end of 1994 or the beginning of 1995. 
      
      201    As regards the fact that Knauf sent its price lists to its competitors, the Commission refers to recitals 313, 314 and 472
         to 474 of the contested decision. 
      
      202    The Commission accepts that the Knauf internal memorandum of 15 November 1993 does not describe a course of action already
         adopted, but rather recommends a course of conduct. However, the content of that memorandum illustrate the attitudes within
         Knauf which led to the later contacts between competitors, which the Commission has proven and which clearly corroborate the
         Commission’s findings that those contacts were anti-competitive. They also cast light on the motives underlying those later
         contacts.
      
      203    As regards the Rigips internal memorandum of October 1994, the Commission contends that the context in which it was written,
         including the fact that it is dated one month before letters announcing the February 1995 price increases, is not just evidence
         that the author of the memorandum was well informed. 
      
      204    As regards the 1 December 1995 price increase, the Commission contests the applicant’s claim that the failure of that increase
         shows that no agreement was concluded in 1992. Moreover, subsequent events showed that contacts had been made in 1996 (perhaps
         in response to that failure), including the June 1996 meeting in Versailles, and that a price increase had been agreed for
         1 February 1997.
      
      205    As regards the Lafarge memorandum of 17 December 1996, the Commission submits that the price increases agreed upon are a manifestation
         of the complex and continuous agreement described in recitals 430 to 434 of the contested decision. Moreover, the importance
         of that memorandum is described in recitals 335 to 352 of the contested decision. 
      
      206    As regards the September 1997 price increase, the Commission states that the failure of that increase does not show that there
         was no agreement. 
      
      207    As regards the September 1998 price increase, the Commission observes that, if an undertaking receives price information from
         a competitor and does not protest, there is sufficient reciprocity to constitute a concerted practice. The Commission also
         considers that the fact that Gyproc admitted that there were concerted attempts to raise prices on the German market supports
         its conclusion. It observes that the BPB memorandum referred to in recital 380 of the contested decision (containing a reference
         to a second price increase in the first quarter of 1999) preceded the Knauf instructions referred to in recital 337 of the
         contested decision, and therefore could not be a reaction to those instructions or to the market rumours that undertaking
         suggested provoking. 
      
       Findings of the Court
      208    BPB disputes that it had direct contact with its competitors on price rises on the German market and that there was concerted
         action on the application of the price rises. It also submits that, in any event, even if direct contact with competitors
         were established, that could not prove a common wish to concert with one another on prices.
      
      209    It is necessary to examine, first, evidence of contacts and concerted action between the undertakings, which is expressly
         contested by BPB. 
      
      210    In this respect, it should be recalled that those contacts must be viewed in the context of a period characterised by a series
         of anti-competitive manifestations demonstrating a common wish of the competitors to stabilise the plasterboard market in
         the four major European markets, including the German market. It must also be observed that, although the content of an isolated
         document found by the Commission may not unequivocally disclose the existence of anti-competitive conduct and so might possibly
         be explained otherwise than by a wish to restrict competition, that fact cannot preclude that document from being interpreted
         as corroborating the existence of such a wish when it is one of a series of other documents which provide reliable indicia
         of the existence of contemporaneous and similar anti-competitive conduct.
      
      211    As regards Knauf’s internal memorandum of 15 November 1993 (recital 305 of the contested decision), BPB observes merely that
         that memorandum recommends a line of conduct which could be anti-competitive, but that it does not constitute evidence that
         that line of conduct was actually adopted. It should be noted that, according to that memorandum, ‘[Knauf’s] new price list
         was sent to all direct customers at the end of October. At the same time, a copy was sent to all [its] competitors to inform
         them’. Thus, BPB’s explanation is contradicted by the fact that the event mentioned in that memorandum of November 1993 took
         place at the end of October 1993. Consequently, the explanation given by BPB of that memorandum is not convincing. In any
         event, BPB’s argument seeks at most to reproach the Commission for not demonstrating that the exchange of information in question
         had had any effect, an argument which cannot diminish its anti‑competitive object.
      
      212    As regards the internal memorandum of October 1994 discovered at Rigips’ premises, the applicant maintains its explanation
         set out in recital 323 of the contested decision. In its view, that memorandum reflects a company manager’s assessment of
         the state of the German market based on the knowledge he had acquired from information collected by his sales staff. 
      
      213    In this respect, the Commission’s interpretation of that memorandum is more convincing in view of the other evidence in the
         file which shows that, at the time, there was concerted action between the undertakings in question. The Commission rightly
         considers that that memorandum reveals knowledge of competitors’ strategies and points to contact between them. Having first
         summarised the situation on the market, the author of that memorandum explains that Gyproc’s sales manager had complained
         that his firm had lost market share and had to win it back. Further, the memorandum envisaged a price freeze at the level
         referred to therein and that a price increase would take place from 1 February 1995. That last comment is particularly revealing.
         If the notification of the price rise announcements by Knauf were unilateral and if BPB was merely following that price rise,
         BPB could not have known in October 1994 that a price rise was planned for 1 February 1995, given that Knauf announced that
         price rise only in November 1994. Furthermore, if, as BPB claims, it had been aware of that price rise through its customers,
         nothing prevented it from demonstrating that so as to contradict the tangible evidence that the Commission found. Further,
         it should be recalled that a price rise actually took place on 1 February 1995.
      
      214    Furthermore, it is noteworthy that, despite that concrete evidence of collusive contact between producers, the Commission
         merely finds, at recital 329 of the contested decision, that the competitors informed each other of their intentions concerning
         the price rise of 1 February 1995 but does not claim that that memorandum constitutes direct evidence of concerted action
         on the price rise. 
      
      215    As regards the price increase in December 1995 (recitals 330 to 333 of the contested decision), the applicant submits that
         the fact that it failed is further evidence of the non‑existence of the 1992 agreement. In this respect, it is sufficient
         to recall that, even if there are no economic effects, that is not proof that there was no cartel, but, at most, evidence
         that the cartel did not function well, which is irrelevant for a finding that there has been concerted action with an anti‑competitive
         object. 
      
      216    Moreover, the fact that the Commission again mentions, in that context, the Versailles meeting of June 1996, the purpose of
         which was to stabilise the German market is entirely relevant, since it is evidence that the undertakings concerned felt the
         need to rediscuss the situation on the German market after the failure of the 1995 price rise. 
      
      217    That view is backed up by Lafarge’s memorandum of 17 December 1996 (recital 335 of the contested decision). The author begins
         that memorandum by stating: 
      
      ‘[W]e were discussing again the current situation on the German market.’ 
      218    BPB disputes that that discussion with its representative, to which reference is made, took place. BPB submits that it is
         normal market behaviour in an oligopolistic market for undertakings to follow each other’s prices and act in parallel. Competition
         was vigorous at the level of transaction prices.
      
      219    BPB’s argument must be rejected. Given that the memorandum of 17 December 1996 recounts the events that took place at the
         meeting of the German Plasterboard Association on 16 December 1996, there is no reason to doubt that the discussion between
         the BPB representative and the author of that memorandum, a Lafarge employee, took place. 
      
      220    Further, the Commission’s interpretation of that memorandum, marked ‘strictly confidential and personal!’, is not vitiated
         by error. That memorandum clearly reflects the author’s concern, against the background of a price increase announced by all
         producers for 1 February 1997, about the conduct of competitors and the pricing policies, especially discounts, that they
         applied. It establishes the existence of direct contacts between the competitors during which they conveyed their analyses
         and intentions. The author of that memorandum explained that the price offered by BPB to certain customers would be ‘below
         the [then] agreed lowest price level’ and that ‘[t]his [would] lead to a destabilization again.’ He adds:
      
      ‘[Knauf] gave them prices for projects until May [19]97 for a lower than agreed price level. With us they insist on discipline
         for the price increase … To increase the price to the agreed level ([2.5-3] DM/m²) will be very tough again.’
      
      221    In those circumstances, the Court considers that the Commission was right to find, at recital 352 of the contested decision
         that, on the occasion of the February 1997 price rise, the competitors colluded directly on the price rise and, at the very
         least, had informed one another of their intentions in anticipation of the price rise. 
      
      222    So far as concerns the attempted price increase of September 1997, BPB submits that none of the documents submitted by the
         Commission relates to it and that any imputation of customer sharing does not concern it. 
      
      223    First of all, it must be pointed out that the four undertakings in question sent out letters announcing the price increase
         of 1 September 1997 in May or at the beginning of June 1997 (recital 353 of the contested decision). Those facts are not contested
         by the applicant. 
      
      224    In addition, even if the Commission does not provide direct evidence of contacts between BPB and its competitors concerning
         that increase, the exchanges between Knauf and Lafarge, referred to in recital 356 of the contested decision by way of example,
         confirm that there was concerted action on the price increases and monitoring of the prices charged by distributors in general.
         The fact that an undertaking did not hesitate to contact a competitor to discuss customers or the prices charged by a distributor
         bears out the fact that there was cooperation between producers. 
      
      225    The Commission gives another example which, in its view, is an additional manifestation of the collusion between BPB, Knauf,
         Lafarge and Gyproc on the German market. It concerns an attempted price increase in September and October 1998.
      
      226    In this respect, it is true that as early as June 1998 BPB announced a price increase for September 1998 and that the other
         competitors did so only in August 1998 for an increase planned to start in October 1998. It is also true that the only other
         evidence directly concerning BPB that the Commission cites in the contested decision is the fact that Knauf sent a copy of
         its announcement of a price increase to the private address of a BPB director. 
      
      227    It should be borne in mind that it is normal, in the context of anti-competitive practices and agreements, for the activities
         to take place in a clandestine fashion, for meetings to be held in secret and for the associated documentation to be reduced
         to a minimum. It follows that, even if the Commission discovers evidence explicitly showing unlawful contact between traders,
         it will normally be only fragmentary and sparse, so that it is often necessary to reconstitute certain details by deduction.
         Accordingly, in most cases, the existence of an anti‑competitive practice or agreement must be inferred from a number of coincidences
         and indicia which, taken together, may, in the absence of another plausible explanation, constitute evidence of an infringement
         of the competition rules (Aalborg Portland and Others v Commission, paragraph 36 above, paragraphs 55 to 57). 
      
      228    In this instance, given the context of the case, the Court considers that the fact that Knauf sent a copy of its announcement
         of a price increase to the private address of a BPB director, which is an unusual manner of communication between competing
         undertakings, suffices to show that there was also close cooperation between the producers concerning the price rises on the
         German market in September and October 1998. 
      
      229    Lastly, as regards the Lafarge memorandum of 7 October 1998 (recitals 290 to 294 of the contested decision), BPB takes the
         view that it is a mere description of the operation of the market. It is true that if that memorandum were the only item of
         evidence found, it would not constitute sufficient evidence of prior concerted action on price rises. However, examined in
         the context of the other evidence described above, that memorandum confirms, first, that there were contacts between the competitors
         on price rises and that there was a connection between them and, second, that there were discussions on German market shares.
         Having regard to the other steps taken by the undertakings in question in order to stabilise the German market, the parallelism
         of the price rises and the discovery by the Commission, during its investigations, of numerous copies of announcements of
         their competitors’ price increases in those undertakings’ premises, which those undertakings admitted in part having sent
         to or received directly from their competitors, the coherent interpretation of that memorandum cannot be the one given by
         the applicant.
      
      230    It is necessary to consider, second, the applicant’s argument that, even if proved, the direct contacts between the competitors
         did not amount to anti-competitive conduct.
      
      231    As regards the applicant’s assertion that it was purely unilateral conduct given that the applicant never sent to its competitors
         copies of its letters announcing price increases, it is true that the concept of concerted practice does in fact imply the
         existence of reciprocal contacts. However, that condition is met where the disclosure by one competitor to another of its
         future intentions or conduct on the market is requested or, at the very least, accepted by the latter (Cement, paragraph 32 above, paragraph 1849). 
      
      232    In addition, in Case T‑1/89 Rhône-Poulenc v Commission [1991] ECR II‑867, in which the applicant had been accused of taking part in meetings at which competitors exchanged information
         concerning, inter alia, the prices which they intended to adopt on the market, the Court of First Instance held that an undertaking,
         by its participation in a meeting with an anti-competitive purpose, had not only pursued the aim of eliminating in advance
         uncertainty about the future conduct of its competitors but could not have failed to take into account, directly or indirectly,
         the information obtained in the course of those meetings in order to determine the policy which it intended to pursue on the
         market (paragraphs 122 and 123). 
      
      233    That conclusion also applies where, as in the present case, the participation of one, or more than one, undertaking in a concerted
         practice with an anti-competitive purpose is limited to the mere receipt of information concerning the future conduct of its
         market competitors. 
      
      234    Each economic operator must determine independently the commercial policy which he intends to adopt on the market. That therefore
         precludes any direct or indirect contact between economic operators with the object or effect of influencing their conduct
         on the market, giving rise to conditions of competition which do not correspond to the normal conditions of the market in
         question, but also any disclosure by an undertaking to a competitor of the course of conduct which it itself has decided to
         adopt or contemplates adopting on the market (Joined Cases T‑305/94 to T‑307/94, T‑313/94 to T‑316/94, T‑318/94, T‑325/94,
         T‑328/94, T‑329/94 and T‑335/94 Limburgse Vinyl Maatschappij and Others v Commission [1999] ECR II‑931, ‘LVM v Commission’, paragraph 720). 
      
      235    As regards the applicant’s claim that the price information which was transmitted was known by the customers of the undertaking
         concerned before it was transmitted to the competitors and that, therefore, the information disclosed could already have been
         collected on the market by those competitors, it should be recalled that the mere fact of receiving information concerning
         competitors, which an independent operator preserves as business secrets, is sufficient to demonstrate the existence of an
         anti‑competitive intention (Tate & Lyle and Others v Commission, paragraph 154 above, paragraph 66).
      
      236    The applicant’s claim that the price information was known by customers before it was transmitted to the competitors and,
         therefore, could be collected on the market must be rejected. That fact, if proved, does not mean that, at the time that the
         price lists were sent to the competitors, those prices already constituted objective market data that were readily accessible.
         The fact that those price lists were sent directly allowed the competitors to become aware of that information more simply,
         rapidly and directly than they would via the market. Further, that prior notification allowed them to create a climate of
         mutual certainty as to their future pricing policies.
      
      237    In those circumstances, the Court considers that, even if the Commission has not been able to prove that there were contacts
         between all the producers as regards each price rise on the German market during the period in question and even if Gyproc’s
         acknowledgement of price collusion on the German market cannot be taken into account (see the first plea), the Commission
         was right to find that the information exchange system set up between BPB, Knauf, Lafarge and Gyproc on price rises on the
         German market constituted a concerted practice which is contrary to Article 81(1) EC. 
      
       The geographic scope of the cartel 
      238    The applicant asserts that the Commission has failed to show to the requisite legal standard that the geographic scope of
         the cartel also extended to France and the Benelux. 
      
      239    In this respect, it is sufficient to recall that the London meeting and the exchanges of information on quantities sold also
         concerned France and the Benelux. 
      
      240    When the Commission is legally entitled to conclude that the various manifestations were part of a single infringement in
         that they were elements of an overall plan designed to distort competition, the fact that the number and intensity of the
         collusive practices varied according to the market concerned does not mean that the infringement did not concern the markets
         on which the practices were less intense and less numerous. It would be artificial to split up continuous conduct, characterised
         by a single purpose, into a number of separate infringements on the ground that the collusive practices varied according to
         the market concerned. Those factors must be taken into consideration only when the gravity of the infringement is assessed
         and if and when it comes to determining the amount of the fine (see, by analogy, Commission v Anic Partecipazioni, paragraph 61 above, paragraph 90).
      
      241    In conclusion, the Commission did not commit an error of law or a manifest error of assessment in its examination of the various
         elements constituting the infringement in question.
      
      242    In those circumstances, the second plea must be rejected. 
      
      3.     The third plea: misapplication of the concept of single infringement 
       Arguments of the parties
      243    The applicant claims that the essential legal condition in establishing a continuous infringement is proof of continuity of
         the undertakings’ participation in the pursuit of the final objective. It submits that the Commission erred in considering
         that the alleged 1992 common purpose could be a basis for the illegality of the various subsequent acts. According to the
         applicant, the subsequent events, such as the Versailles meeting, do not constitute an infringement but only an attempted
         infringement and that classification cannot be called in question by presuming that it is a continuous infringement. The applicant
         thus considers that, in order to prove the existence of a complex and continuous agreement, the Commission must examine each
         manifestation with sufficient rigour in declaring it illegal. Moreover, the Commission committed an error of deduction in
         finding the existence of a common wish on the basis of those manifestations and in considering that their illegality derived
         from the common wish. The applicant submits that the Commission must show that the common wish exists independently of the
         infringement in question.
      
      244    According to the applicant, the Commission’s explanation, namely that it found the common wish by looking at the five instances
         of anti-competitive conduct in conjunction, is unconvincing. The applicant observes that the identity of object found by the
         Commission is vague and goes no further than saying that all anti‑competitive activity ultimately achieves the same purpose
         because all anti‑competitive conduct will, ultimately, have an impact on price. It also states that the Commission is quite
         unable to explain with any clarity what the alleged agreement actually contained and when it was made, if it was not made
         at the 1992 meeting. It also maintains that the alleged single and continuous infringement in which four undertakings participated
         and which lasted from 1992 to 1998 is further undermined by the limited number of undertakings which took part in some of
         the anti‑competitive manifestations or by the non‑involvement of certain undertakings in them. The applicant and Knauf participated
         in the 1992 London meeting, but Lafarge and Gyproc did not. Although it is common ground that the information exchanges that
         followed that meeting were extended to Lafarge and Gyproc, the Commission does not explain how or when that took place or
         through whom those undertakings acceded to the common wish or joint intention allegedly underlying the information exchanges.
         Moreover, the applicant considers that the Commission could not draw any inference from the anti‑competitive manifestations
         with regard to the French and Benelux markets, since they related only to the German and United Kingdom markets. 
      
      245    The Commission claims that it set out considerations concerning the factual elements of each of the five instances of conduct
         referred to in recital 429 of the contested decision and that it is the existence of those factual elements that it must demonstrate.
         It adds that it concluded, in the light of those factual considerations, that those instances of conduct were the expression
         of a common wish to restrict competition to a minimum in the four main European plasterboard markets. Once those deductions
         had been made, the only logical way of describing those instances of conduct was to consider them as manifestations of that
         common wish. The Commission did not thus engage in any circular reasoning in that analysis. It also contends that the various
         elements of the single infringement are clearly complementary, that complementarity being evidence of the identity of object
         of the various manifestations of that infringement. For example, for the price rises to be successful, the competitors had
         to be satisfied with the market shares they held. 
      
       Findings of the Court
      246    As a preliminary paragraph, it must be observed, according to the contested decision (recital 479), that the Commission found
         that the set of agreements and concerted practices in the present case formed part of a series of actions by the undertakings
         in question pursuing a single economic aim, namely the restriction of competition, and constituted the various manifestations
         of a complex, continuous agreement, the object and effect of which was to restrict competition. Taking the view that the abovementioned
         agreements and concerted practices had given, without interruption from 1992 until 1998, substantive shape to those undertakings’
         common wish to stabilise, and hence restrict competition on at least the German, French, United Kingdom and Benelux plasterboard
         markets, the Commission characterised the infringement as single, complex and continuous. 
      
      247    Thus, Article 1 of the contested decision states that the undertakings concerned, including the applicant, ‘have infringed
         Article 81(1) [EC] by participating in a set of agreements and concerted practices in the plasterboard business’. 
      
      248    It is first necessary to examine the applicant’s argument that the Commission erred in law by finding that there was an overall
         plan on the basis of the various manifestations of the infringement, without showing that the common wish existed independently
         of those various manifestations.
      
      249    It should be recalled that, in most cases, the existence of an anti‑competitive practice or agreement must be inferred from
         a number of coincidences and indicia which, taken together, may, in the absence of another plausible explanation, constitute
         evidence of an infringement of the competition rules (Aalborg Portland and Others v Commission, paragraph 36 above, paragraph 57). That case‑law can be transposed to the concept of a single and continuous infringement.
         Where there is a complex, single and continuous infringement, each manifestation corroborates the actual occurrence of such
         an infringement. 
      
      250    Thus, contrary to what the applicant claims, the various manifestations of the infringement in question must be assessed in
         the overall context explaining the reason for their existence. It is not a question of circular reasoning but of evaluation
         of evidence, in which the evidential value of various facts is corroborated or weakened by other facts, which, taken as a
         whole, may show that there has been a single infringement. 
      
      251    BPB also submits that the Commission has not demonstrated to the requisite legal standard the common purpose causing the various
         manifestations to constitute a single and continuous infringement. 
      
      252    In this respect, it should be recalled that an infringement of Article 81(1) EC may result not only from an isolated act but
         also from a series of acts or from continuous conduct. That interpretation cannot be challenged on the ground that one or
         several elements of that series of acts or continuous conduct could also constitute, in themselves and in isolation, an infringement
         of that provision. When the different actions form part of an overall plan because their identical object distorts competition
         within the common market, the Commission is entitled to impute responsibility for those actions on the basis of participation
         in the infringement considered as a whole (Aalborg Portland and Others v Commission, paragraph 36 above, paragraph 258).
      
      253    In the present case, examination of the second plea clearly shows that, following the London meeting, BPB participated in
         a single, complex and continuous infringement characterised by the sole purpose of putting an end to the price war and stabilising
         the four plasterboard markets. The meetings, the exchange of information and the price‑fixing practices pursued the same anti-competitive
         object of maintaining prices at a supra‑competitive level and of reducing competition between the undertakings on the relevant
         market. 
      
      254    The matters set out in the second plea permit the conclusion that the Commission was right to find, at recital 432 of the
         contested decision, that: 
      
      ‘These various manifestations are … clearly complementary in the light of the functioning of the plasterboard market. The
         improvement of the economic situation of the undertakings through an increase in prices rendered necessary a coordination
         of those undertakings at the level of market shares.’
      
      255    In the present case, the Court finds that, owing to their identical object and close synergies, the agreements and concerted
         practices formed part of an overall plan which was itself part of a series of efforts made by the undertakings in question
         in pursuit of a single economic aim, namely to influence the normal movement of prices. As the Commission correctly states
         at recital 422 of the contested decision, it would be artificial to split up such continuous conduct, characterised by a single
         purpose, by treating it as consisting of several separate infringements, when what was involved was a single infringement
         which progressively manifested itself in both agreements and concerted practices. The infringement constitutes a single infringement
         by virtue of the identical nature of the objective pursued by each participant in the cartel, not by virtue of the methods
         of implementing it (see, to that effect, Cement, paragraph 32 above, paragraph 4127).
      
      256    Further, in the context of an overall agreement extending over several years, a gap of several months between the manifestations
         of the cartel is immaterial. The fact that the various actions form part of an overall plan owing to their identical object,
         on the other hand, is decisive (Aalborg Portland and Others v Commission, paragraph 36 above, paragraph 260).
      
      257    As regards the argument alleging that there was no such plan, it is sufficient to recall that the notion of a single infringement
         covers precisely a situation in which several undertakings participated in an infringement in which continuous conduct in
         pursuit of a single economic aim was intended to distort competition, and also individual infringements linked to one another
         by the same object (all the elements sharing the same purpose) and the same subjects (the same undertakings, who are aware
         that they are participating in the common object). 
      
      258    Lastly, as regards the applicant’s assertion that the single nature of the infringement is contradicted by the fact that a
         limited number of undertakings took part in some of the anti-competitive manifestations and that some of the undertakings
         did not participate in the infringement from the beginning, it is sufficient to recall that the fact that an undertaking has
         not taken part in all aspects of a cartel or that it played only a minor role in it is not material to the establishment of
         the existence of an infringement committed by it. Those factors must be taken into consideration only when the gravity of
         the infringement is assessed and if and when it comes to determining the amount of the fine (Aalborg Portland and Others v Commission, paragraph 36 above, paragraph 86).
      
      259    Thus, even if the agreements and concerted practices referred to in Article 81(1) EC necessarily result from collaboration
         by several undertakings who are all co‑perpetrators of the infringement, their participation can take different forms according,
         in particular, to the characteristics of the market concerned and the position of each undertaking on that market, the aims
         pursued and the means of implementation chosen or envisaged. 
      
      260    Consequently, the mere fact that each undertaking participates in the infringement in forms specific to it does not affect
         the categorisation of the infringement as a single and continuous infringement. 
      
      261    It follows from the foregoing considerations that the complaints challenging the categorisation of the cartel as a single
         and continuous infringement are unfounded.
      
      4.     The fourth plea: infringement of Articles 253 EC and 15(2) of Regulation No 17 and breach of general principles in the calculation
            of the amount of the fine 
      262    This plea comprises five parts. First, with regard to the starting amount of EUR 80 million, the applicant considers that
         amount to be arbitrary, disproportionate and not supported by a statement of reasons. In this respect, it also submits that
         the Commission erred in classifying the infringement as very serious. Furthermore, it claims that the Commission was wrong
         to conclude that the infringement had an actual adverse impact on the plasterboard market. Second, the increase of the starting
         amount in respect of the duration of the infringement is based on an incorrect interpretation of the duration of the infringement
         and of the Guidelines. The Commission also failed to assess and take due account of the limited intensity of the infringement
         during the relevant period or during certain periods concerned. Third, the applicant considers that the Commission erred by
         increasing the amount of the fine on account of aggravating circumstances. Fourth, the Commission did not take proper account
         of the attenuating circumstances. Fifth, the Commission erred in applying the Leniency Notice. 
      
       The disproportionate nature of the starting amount of the fine determined according to the gravity of the infringement 
       The gravity of the infringement 
      –       Arguments of the parties
      263    The applicant considers that, in view of its limited impact on the market, the infringement should have been classified as
         serious rather than very serious.
      
      264    The applicant observes that in Commission Decision 1999/271/EC of 9 December 1998 relating to a proceeding pursuant to Article
         [81] EC (IV/34.466 – Greek Ferries) (OJ 1999 L 109, p. 24) and Commission Decision 1999/210/EC of 14 October 1998 relating
         to a proceeding pursuant to Article [81] EC (Case IV/F‑3/33.708 – British Sugar plc, Case IV/F-3/33.709 – Tate & Lyle plc,
         Case IV/F-3/33.710 – Napier Brown & Company Ltd, Case IV/F-3/33.711 – James Budgett Sugars Ltd) (OJ 1999 L 76, p. 1), the
         Commission considered that the infringements in question could be regarded as serious rather than very serious on the basis
         of their limited market impact.
      
      265    The applicant submits, in the alternative, that, even if the Commission’s classification were correct, it should have recognised
         that even infringements within the very serious category vary in their degree of gravity and that in comparison with other
         cartel cases, the agreement alleged in this case was a considerably less intensive and anti-competitive example of a cartel.
         The applicant states that when the contested decision was adopted, the fine imposed on the undertakings concerned was the
         second highest imposed by the Commission, after that imposed in the case which gave rise to Commission Decision 2003/2/EC
         of 21 November 2001 relating to a proceeding pursuant to Article 81 [EC] and Article 53 of the EEA Agreement (Case COMP/E‑1/37.512
         – Vitamins) (OJ 2003 L 6, p. 1). It claims that the cartel alleged in the present case was much less intensive than, for example,
         that in the Vitamins case and in the cases which gave rise to Commission Decision 2002/742/EC of 5 December 2001 relating
         to a proceeding pursuant to Article 81 [EC] and Article 53 of the EEA Agreement (Case No COMP/E‑1/36.604 – Citric acid) (OJ
         2002 L 239, p. 18), Commission Decision 1999/60/EC of 21 October 1998 relating to a proceeding under Article [81 EC] (Case
         No IV/35.691/E‑4 – Pre‑Insulated Pipe Cartel) (OJ 1999 L 24, p. 1), Commission Decision 2001/418/EC of 7 June 2000 relating
         to a proceeding pursuant to Article 81 [EC] and Article 53 of the EEA Agreement (Case COMP/36.545/F3 Amino Acids) (OJ 2001
         L 152, p. 24) and Commission Decision 2002/271/EC of 18 July 2001 relating to a proceeding under Article 81 [EC] and Article
         53 of the EEA Agreement (Case COMP/E‑1/36.490 – Graphite electrodes) (OJ 2002 L 100, p. 1). It claims that those five cases
         concerned very serious infringements of Article 81(1) EC. Thus, they all involved cartels which covered the entire common
         market or the European Economic Area (EEA). Those cartels displayed attempts to set up cartels which were much more intensive
         than the alleged cartel among plasterboard producers which, compared with other cartels, was a rather loose and vague agreement,
         lacking any form of structure or organisation. In those circumstances, the applicant considers that the starting amount of
         the fine imposed on it by reason of the gravity of the infringement in question is disproportionate and contrary to the principle
         of equal treatment, given that that amount is the third highest set in comparison with all the participants in the other cartels
         mentioned above.
      
      266    The applicant submits that the Commission was wrong to compare the various fines by reference to the size of the relevant
         market. First, the Guidelines do not say that account should be taken of the size of the market in terms of value in order
         to assess the gravity of the infringement. Second, the Commission took account only of the size of the market and not of other
         factors which determine the gravity of the infringement. Third, the Commission does not usually take account of the size of
         the product market in assessing the gravity of an infringement. 
      
      267    The Commission refers to the aspects of the infringement which were found to be particularly serious in this case (recitals
         534, 535 and 539 to 542 of the contested decision). It also states that the cartel was conceived, directed and encouraged
         at the senior levels of each of the undertakings participating. BPB was involved in all the manifestations of anti-competitive
         conduct in question and it was accepted by BPB that the same persons, Mr [D] and Mr [A] (both CEOs of BPB), were directly
         involved in all but one of the instances of offending conduct described in the contested decision.
      
      –       Findings of the Court
      268    For the purpose of fixing the amount of the fine, the gravity of the infringement is to be assessed by taking into account,
         in particular, the nature of the restrictions on competition, the number and size of the undertakings concerned, the respective
         proportions of the market controlled by them within the Community and the situation of the market when the infringement was
         committed (Case 41/69 ACFChemiefarma v Commission [1970] ECR 661, paragraph 176).
      
      269    Article 81(1)(a) EC expressly states that concerted practices which directly or indirectly fix purchase or selling prices
         or any other trading conditions are incompatible with the common market.
      
      270    Infringements of that kind, particularly in the case of horizontal cartels, are classified by the case‑law as ‘particularly
         serious’ since they involve direct interference with the essential parameters of competition on the market in question (Case
         T‑141/94 Thyssen Stahl v Commission [1999] ECR II‑347, paragraph 675) or clear infringements of the Community competition rules (Tréfilunion v Commission, paragraph 178 above, paragraph 109, and Case T‑311/94 BPB de Eendracht v Commission [1998] ECR II‑1129, paragraph 303).
      
      271    It is also important to bear in mind that very serious infringements within the meaning of the third indent of the second
         paragraph of Section 1.A of the Guidelines are ‘generally horizontal restrictions such as price cartels and market‑sharing
         quotas’.
      
      272    It follows that the Commission was right to classify the infringement at issue as very serious, having regard to its nature.
         It is nevertheless necessary to examine the factors capable of moderating that classification on which the applicant relies.
         
      
      273    As regards the applicant’s argument that the infringement should have been classified as serious on the ground that its impact
         on the market was limited, it must be observed that in Case T‑203/01 Michelin v Commission [2003] ECR II‑4071, paragraphs 258 and 259, the Court held that the gravity of the infringement could be established by reference
         to the nature and the object of the abusive conduct and that factors relating to the object of a course of conduct may be
         more significant for the purposes of setting the amount of the fine than those relating to its effects. 
      
      274    Therefore, even if the size of the geographic market concerned and the impact on the market, when measurable, must also be
         taken into account, the nature of the infringements constitutes an essential criterion for assessing the gravity of an infringement
         (Case T‑241/01 Scandinavian Airlines System v Commission [2005] ECR II‑2917, paragraph 84). 
      
      275    As regards the applicant’s argument that the Commission has reduced the amounts of fines in its other decisions owing to the
         limited impact of the cartels on the market, assuming that this is correct, it should be pointed out that the Commission’s
         previous decision-making practice does not in itself serve as a legal framework for fines in competition matters (Case T‑23/99
         LR AF 1998 v Commission [2002] ECR II‑1705, paragraph 234). 
      
      276    As regards the applicant’s alternative claim that, even if the classification of the infringement were correct, the Commission
         should have recognised that even infringements within the very serious category vary in their degree of gravity and that in
         comparison with other cartel cases, the agreement alleged in this case was a considerably less intensive and anti-competitive
         example of a cartel, that question overlaps with the question, which will be examined below, whether the amount of the fine
         imposed by the Commission was proportionate to the gravity of the infringement.
      
      277    It must none the less be borne in mind that, in any event, a comparison between the gravity of the various cartels is virtually
         impossible because of the different circumstances in each case.
      
      278    As regards the applicant’s claim that the Commission erred in comparing the various fines by reference to the size of the
         relevant market, it must be borne in mind that, in assessing the gravity of an infringement, the Commission is required to
         take account of numerous factors, the nature and importance of which vary according to the type of infringement at issue and
         the specific circumstances surrounding the infringement in question (Joined Cases 100/80 to 103/80 Musique diffusion française and Others v Commission [1983] ECR 1825, paragraph 120). The factors tending to establish the gravity of an infringement may, where appropriate,
         include the size of the market for the relevant product (Case T‑330/01 Akzo Nobel v Commission [2006] ECR II‑3389, paragraph 37).
      
      279    Lastly, it must be observed that a horizontal price cartel as extensive as the one found by the Commission in the contested
         decision, relating to such an important economic sector, cannot normally escape classification as a very serious infringement,
         whatever its context. In any event, the circumstances invoked by the applicant in this case are not such as to call in question
         the validity of the Commission’s assessment of the gravity of the infringement. 
      
      280    The Court must therefore reject the applicant’s complaints challenging the classification of the infringement as very serious
         on account of its nature.
      
       The actual impact of the infringement on the market 
      –       Arguments of the parties
      281    The applicant submits that in the contested decision, the Commission was not able to demonstrate any quantifiable loss.
      
      282    The applicant considers that the impact of the cartel on the market concerned was limited given that, during the period 1992
         to 1998, the ‘net net’ prices remained at the same level in real terms in the United Kingdom and fell by 11% in Germany. The
         applicant states that the Commission has not demonstrated any effects on the market in France or the Benelux. Moreover, the
         Commission has failed to show any consumer detriment. 
      
      283    The applicant further claims that prices and market shares moved in the United Kingdom and Germany during the period concerned
         in a predictable manner in the context of the return to more normal conditions of competition after a savage price war. 
      
      284    It admits that the London meeting may have contributed to an acceleration of the ending of the price war but denies that it
         could have been the only cause. According to the applicant, the price war would have ended anyway. 
      
      285    The applicant also maintains that the information exchanges had little effect. It submits in that connection that it used
         the information obtained only to determine whether there was a new mood in the industry. Moreover, Mr [D] had disclosed the
         data to no-one, except once in 1993. The lack of effect of those exchanges is borne out by an examination of the data actually
         exchanged. The applicant states that the initial exchanges were of annual data. In 1993, the exchanges became half yearly,
         and in 1996 they became quarterly. However, the exchanges did not occur on a regular basis. Moreover, the information was
         of an aggregated nature, being a single figure for the entire national market. 
      
      286    The applicant refers to Deere v Commission, paragraph 108 above, and the judgment in Thyssen Stahl v Commission, paragraph 270 above, and submits that the circumstances giving rise to the present case are completely different from those
         which led to those two judgments. In those two cases the information exchanged was much more detailed and recent. 
      
      287    As regards the advance warnings of list price increases, the applicant argues that in almost every case the advance warning
         preceded the announcement of those increases to customers by only a few days and that, in certain cases, was even made at
         the same time. Thus, the information was not confidential when it was imparted. Moreover, the applicant observes that the
         list prices are rarely the prices which customers pay. 
      
      288    The applicant also considers that the alleged infringement could not have caused harm to consumers because the customers are
         nearly all commercial concerns with considerable buyer power and the ability to negotiate discounts by playing the producers
         off against each other. 
      
      289    The applicant also contests the Commission’s conclusion that competition tends to be more limited in an oligopolistic market.
         It submits that market shares moved considerably, with considerable customer switching. 
      
      290    Finally, the Commission has not shown that the infringement had an impact on the French and Benelux markets. It states that
         the Commission’s main evidence is that the information exchanges extended to those markets. However, it failed to produce
         evidence of anti-competitive conduct relating to those two markets. 
      
      291    The Commission considers that the infringement committed in this case had a practical impact by reason of the very nature
         of the relevant market. 
      
      292    Further, the end of the price war was one of the principal objectives of the cartel and the price war did end as a result
         of the cartel. As to BPB’s argument that the infringement was not the only cause of the ending of the price war, it submits
         that even if that were true it does not lessen the practical impact of the infringement on the market concerned.
      
      293    As regards the information exchanges, the Commission found that they were used to monitor the market and to prevent any competition
         considered too aggressive by the undertakings in question in the four markets concerned. 
      
      294    The fact that the undertakings actually announced the agreed price increases and that the prices so announced served as a
         basis for fixing individual transaction prices suffices in itself for a finding that the collusion on prices had as both its
         object and its effect a serious restriction of competition. It is not therefore necessary to determine whether the variations
         in the transaction prices obtained evolved in parallel with those of the prices announced in order to show a practical effect
         on the market concerned. 
      
      295    The Commission states that it is not required to demonstrate either that the infringement caused a quantifiable loss or that
         consumers were harmed. It contends, however, referring to recital 534 of the contested decision, that increased price and
         market share stability is consistent with the implementation of the cartel. It also states that plasterboard is used in the
         construction industry, and that it affects housing prices and therefore consumers. 
      
      296    As regards the geographic scope of the cartel, the Commission contends that the fact that anti-competitive activity may have
         been less intense in some markets does not mean that the cartel did not operate in those markets.
      
      –       Findings of the Court
      297    It should be borne in mind that, according to Section 1A, first paragraph, of the Guidelines, the Commission is to take account,
         inter alia, of ‘[the] actual impact [of the infringement] on the market, where this can be measured’, when calculating the
         amount of the fine on the basis of the gravity of the infringement. 
      
      298    In this regard, it is necessary to analyse the exact meaning of the words ‘where this [i.e. the actual impact] can be measured’.
         In particular, it is a question of establishing whether those words mean that the Commission can take account of the actual
         impact of an infringement for the purpose of calculating fines only if, and in so far as, it is able to quantify that impact.
      
      299    It should also be emphasised that when appraising the effects of agreements or practices in the light of Article 81 EC it
         is necessary to take into consideration the actual context in which they are situated, in particular the economic and legal
         context in which the undertakings concerned operate, the nature of the goods or services affected, as well as the real conditions
         of the functioning and the structure of the market or markets in question (ASNEF-EQUIFAX and Administración del Estado, paragraph 106 above, paragraph 49).
      
      300    Further, consideration of the impact of a cartel on the market necessarily involves recourse to assumptions. In this respect,
         the Commission must in particular consider what the price of the relevant product would have been in the absence of a cartel.
         When examining the causes of actual price developments, it is hazardous to speculate on the part played by each of those causes.
         Account must be taken of the objective fact that, because of the price cartel, the undertakings concerned specifically waived
         their freedom to compete with one another on prices. Thus, the assessment of the influence of factors other than that voluntary
         decision of the undertakings concerned in the cartel not to compete with one another is necessarily based on reasonable probability,
         which is not precisely quantifiable.
      
      301    Therefore, unless the criterion of Section 1A, first paragraph, of the Guidelines is to be deprived of its effectiveness,
         the Commission cannot be criticised for referring to the actual impact on the market of a cartel having an anti‑competitive
         object even though it does not quantify that impact or provide any assessment in figures in this respect. Consequently, the
         actual impact of a cartel on the market must be regarded as having been sufficiently demonstrated if the Commission is able
         to provide specific and credible evidence indicating with reasonable probability that the cartel had an impact on the market.
         
      
      302    In the present case, it is apparent from the summary of the Commission’s analysis (see recitals 534 to 538 of the contested
         decision) that it relied on several indicia in order to find that the cartel had an actual impact on the market. The Commission
         relied on the fact that the cartel participants held all or almost all plasterboard supply on the four markets to which the
         cartel extended. It also found that the various elements of the cartel were put into practice in that the undertakings in
         question effectively modified their conduct after the London meeting and that the information exchanges decided on were implemented
         throughout the period in question, on the main markets and more specifically on the United Kingdom and German markets. As
         regards prices, it added, referring to recitals 212 and 395 of the contested decision, that they had tended to rise or, at
         least, stabilise and that the contacts relating to price increases were effectively linked to the publication of price lists
         subsequently taken into account in the prices invoiced to customers. Furthermore, the Commission, referring to recitals 71,
         196 and 289 of the contested decision and the annex thereto, found that market shares had been relatively stable during the
         period in question, more so than during the period before 1988–1992, which was characterised by the undertakings in question
         as a price war. 
      
      303    Both the fact that the parties involved in the cartel held the majority (indeed even almost all) of the market concerned and
         that the arrangements brought to light were specifically intended to increase prices to a level higher than that which they
         would otherwise have reached are indications tending to show that the infringement was capable of producing significant anti‑competitive
         effects. 
      
      304    Thus, the Commission cannot be criticised for having found that the fact that the cartel participants held a very considerable
         share of the market concerned was an important factor which ought to be taken into account in examining the cartel’s actual
         impact on the market. It cannot be denied that the probability that a cartel on prices and on market stabilisation is effective
         increases with the size of the market shares divided among the participants in that cartel. Although that alone does not prove
         an actual impact, nevertheless in the contested decision the Commission did not show a cause-and-effect relationship of that
         kind, but merely took it into account in the same way as other factors. 
      
      305    As regards the Commission’s assertion that prices effectively tended to rise or, at least, stabilise (recital 534 of the contested
         decision), it must be pointed out that the Commission does not present statistics on price developments, but notes merely
         that BPB and Lafarge stated in their replies to the statement of objections that prices on the United Kingdom and German markets
         had tended to rise or, at least, stabilise. 
      
      306    In this respect, the following should be noted. First, concerning Lafarge’s reply to the statement of objections, it is apparent
         from paragraph 58 above that the Court has decided, for the sake of completeness, to disregard it as inculpatory evidence
         against the applicant. Second, even if the applicant’s reply to the statement of objections can be interpreted in the way
         that the Commission claims, namely that, for the United Kingdom and German markets, the applicant itself admitted that prices
         tended to rise or, at least, to stabilise, the French and Benelux markets are not covered by that assertion. Third, it is
         apparent from the applicant’s reply to the statement of objections that it stated that, during the period 1992 to 1998, transaction
         prices had remained at the same level in real terms in the United Kingdom and had fallen in Germany. 
      
      307    However, the Commission cannot be required, where the implementation of a cartel has been established, systematically to demonstrate
         that the agreements in fact enabled the undertakings concerned to achieve a higher level of transaction prices than that which
         would have prevailed in the absence of a cartel. It would be disproportionate to require such proof, which would absorb considerable
         resources, given that it would necessitate making hypothetical calculations based on economic models whose accuracy it would
         be difficult for the Court to verify and whose infallibility is in no way proved (Opinion of Advocate General Mischo in Case
         C-283/98 P Mo och Domsjö v Commission [2000] ECR I‑9855, I‑9858, point 109). 
      
      308    In the present case, it is apparent from the contested decision and from the applicant’s own admission that the price war
         came to an end, which, by definition, had the effect of increasing prices to levels higher than they would have reached without
         the illicit arrangements. 
      
      309    Further, the fact that the contacts relating to price increases were linked to the publication of price lists subsequently
         taken into account in the prices invoiced to customers (recital 534 of the contested decision) had, by its very nature, an
         impact on the market and on the conduct of the various operators, both on the supply and demand side, given that such announcements
         influenced the pricing process, in that the price announced constituted a point of reference for individual negotiation of
         transaction prices with customers (see, to that effect, Case T‑338/94 Finnboard v Commission [1998] ECR II‑1617, paragraph 342), who inevitably saw their scope for price negotiation restricted (see, to that effect,
         LVM v Commission, paragraph 234 above, paragraph 745).
      
      310    Moreover, the fixing of a price, even one which merely sets a target, affects competition because it enables all the cartel
         participants to predict with a reasonable degree of certainty what the pricing policy pursued by their competitors will be
         (Case 8/72 Vereeniging van Cementhandelaren v Commission [1972] ECR 977, paragraph 21). More generally, such cartels involve direct interference with the essential parameters of
         competition on the market in question (Thyssen Stahl v Commission, paragraph 270 above, paragraph 675). By expressing the common intention to apply a given price level to their products,
         the producers concerned do not independently determine their policy in the market, thus undermining the concept inherent in
         the provisions of the Treaty relating to competition (see, to that effect, BPB de Eendracht v Commission, paragraph 270 above, paragraph 192). 
      
      311    The Court therefore considers that the Commission has demonstrated to the requisite legal standard that the cartel had an
         actual impact on the marked concerned as regards prices. 
      
      312    As regards the Commission’s assertion at recital 534 of the contested decision that market shares were relatively stable during
         the period in question on account of the infringement in question, that assertion is not borne out. Admittedly, it is apparent
         from the table in the annex to the contested decision, to which the Commission refers, that market shares during the period
         1992 to 1998 seem to have remained relatively stable. None the less, in the absence of data relating to the situation on the
         market concerned before the cartel, that table does not prove to the requisite legal standard that the stability, if established,
         was the consequence of the infringement in question. 
      
      313    So far as concerns the exchanges of information, it is settled case‑law that, subject to proof to the contrary, which the
         economic operators concerned must adduce, the presumption must be that the undertakings taking part in the concerted arrangements
         and remaining active on the market take account of the information exchanged with their competitors when determining their
         conduct on that market. That is all the more true where the undertakings concert together on a regular basis over a long period,
         as is the case here (see HFB and Others v Commission, paragraph 79 above, paragraph 216, and the case-law cited).
      
      314    In the light of the foregoing considerations, the Court finds that the Commission has sufficiently proved the effects of the
         infringement on the market concerned, with the exception of the stability of market shares. Given the gravity of the conduct
         in question and the nature of the market, it may also be presumed that there was an effect on the French and Benelux markets.
         
      
      315    Thus, it is still necessary to consider whether the fact that the Commission has not proved all the alleged effects of the
         infringement has an impact on the classification of the infringement as a very serious infringement and therefore on the amount
         of the fine. 
      
      316    In this respect, it should be recalled that the gravity of infringements has to be determined by reference to numerous factors,
         such as the particular circumstances of the case, its context and the deterrent effect of fines; moreover, no binding or exhaustive
         list of the criteria which must be applied has been drawn up (Case C‑219/95 P Ferriere Nord v Commission [1997] ECR I‑4411, paragraph 33). 
      
      317    The Court held, in Michelin v Commission, paragraph 273 above (paragraphs 258 and 259), that the gravity of the infringement could be established by reference to
         the nature and the object of the abusive conduct and that, according to settled case‑law, factors relating to the object of
         a course of conduct may be more significant for the purposes of setting the amount of the fine than those relating to its
         effects.
      
      318    The Court of Justice has confirmed that approach by holding that the effect of an anti-competitive practice is not a conclusive
         criterion for assessing the proper amount of a fine. Factors relating to the intentional aspect may be more significant than
         those relating to the effects, particularly where they relate to infringements which are intrinsically serious, such as price
         fixing and market sharing (judgment of the Court of Justice in Thyssen Stahl v Commission, paragraph 180 above, paragraph 118).
      
      319    Moreover, it must be remembered that horizontal price agreements have always been regarded as among the most serious infringements
         under Community competition law (Tate & Lyle and Others v Commission, paragraph 154 above, paragraph 103, and Case T‑213/00 CMA CGM and Others v Commission [2003] ECR II‑913, paragraph 262).
      
      320    Finally, it is also important to point out that the Commission did not attach primary significance to the criterion of the
         actual impact of the infringement on the market in setting the starting amount of the fine. The Commission also based its
         determination on other considerations, namely the finding that the infringement was to be classified as very serious by its
         very nature (recitals 528 to 530 of the contested decision) and that the relevant geographic market constituted a large part
         of the Community market, geographically and in terms of value, since it represented approximately 80% of the market’s total
         value (recitals 539 to 542 of the contested decision).
      
      321    Consequently, in the light of all the foregoing considerations, the Commission was right to classify the infringement as very
         serious. 
      
      322    Further, the Court finds, in the exercise of its unlimited jurisdiction and in the light of the foregoing considerations,
         that the fact that the Commission demonstrated only partially the effects of the infringement is not capable of calling in
         question the Commission’s assessment of the starting amount of the fine set according to gravity.
      
       The determination of the starting amount of the fine according to the gravity of the infringement 
      –       Arguments of the parties
      323    The applicant considers that, according to the third indent of the second paragraph of Section 1.A of the Guidelines, a very
         serious infringement will attract a fine of a starting amount which will be likely to be above EUR 20 million. The applicant
         takes the view that, in view of that provision, the Commission should explain on the basis of which criterion it chose an
         amount above EUR 20 million. In the absence of such an explanation, the figure chosen appears to have been chosen at random.
         
      
      324    The applicant asserts that its fine is also disproportionate and excessive when compared with its turnover. It observes that
         the fine imposed represents 18.1% of its plasterboard turnover in Europe, 24.3% of its plasterboard turnover in the four main
         markets, and 44.4% of its plasterboard turnover in the United Kingdom and Germany in 2001‑2002. Moreover, its fine is much
         higher in terms of its turnover than the other fines imposed for the same or comparable infringements. 
      
      325    The applicant submits that, in examining the proportionality of the fine, a comparison with other cases must be ‘illuminating’.
         It asks by what yardstick proportionality is to be measured if it is not able to argue that the fine is disproportionate by
         comparison even with contemporaneous cases or by reference to the applicant’s turnover or that of other undertakings. 
      
      326    The applicant also maintains that the Commission’s delay of at least one year in taking the contested decision has contributed
         to the imposition of a much higher fine than would have been likely had that decision been taken at the end of 2001 rather
         than on 27 November 2002. At that time, the Commission tried to deflect public attention away from a number of setbacks in
         a series of merger cases and therefore sought to derive maximum political capital from the imposition of ‘heavy fines’ for
         that cartel. 
      
      327    The Commission asserts that the starting amounts it selected for each of the undertakings bear a clear and proportionate relationship
         to each other and to the gravity of the infringement.
      
      328    The Commission states that the reasons which prompted it to set the initial amount at EUR 80 million are set out in recitals
         545 to 549 of the contested decision. It states that it is not required to give further reasons for its choice. 
      
      329    The Commission contends that any comparison between the fines imposed in the other cases is not illuminating, because it determines
         the amount of the fines case by case and may in any event increase the general amount of fines within the limits set by Regulation
         No 17 if that proves necessary in order to implement competition policy. The Commission gives a table of the starting amounts
         of fines imposed in cases concerning markets with the largest values to demonstrate that the starting amount of the fine imposed
         on the applicant is no higher than those of the fines imposed in other cases and that, on the contrary, it is significantly
         lower when the size of the relevant market is taken into account. It emphasises, however, that it does not seek to justify
         the starting amount by reference to that table, which relates to only one of the factors taken into account in assessing the
         starting amount. 
      
      330    Finally, the Commission submits that BPB has shown neither that there has been unreasonable delay, given the complexity of
         the case, nor that this delay had caused any prejudice to its rights of defence. BPB’s assertions concerning the political
         climate are pure speculation, and wholly irrelevant to the question whether the fine was lawfully imposed. 
      
      –       Findings of the Court
      331    As regards the scope of the duty to state reasons as it applies to the setting of a fine imposed for infringement of the Community
         competition rules, it should be noted, first, that such a fine must be fixed in the light of the provisions of the second
         subparagraph of Article 15(2) of Regulation No 17, which states that ‘[i]n fixing the amount of the fine, regard shall be
         had both to the gravity and the duration of the infringement’. In this respect, the Guidelines and the Leniency Notice indicate
         what factors the Commission takes into consideration in measuring the gravity and duration of an infringement (Case T‑220/00
         Cheil Jedang v Commission [2003] ECR II‑2473, paragraph 217). In those circumstances, the essential procedural requirement to state reasons is satisfied
         where the Commission indicates in its decision the factors which it took into account in accordance with the Guidelines and,
         where appropriate, the Leniency Notice and which enabled it to determine the gravity of the infringement and its duration
         for the purpose of calculating the amount of the fine (Cheil Jedang v Commission, cited above, paragraph 218).
      
      332    It is true that, in the present case, the Commission has not indicated figures other than those relating to the market shares
         of the undertakings in question on the basis of which it set the starting amount of the fine imposed on the applicant at EUR 80 million.
         
      
      333    However, there is no obligation on the Commission, as part of its duty to state reasons, to indicate in its decision the figures
         relating to the method of calculating the amount of fines (Case C‑286/98 P Stora Kopparbergs Bergslags v Commission [2000] ECR I‑9925, paragraph 66).
      
      334    Statements of figures relating to the calculation of the amount of fines, however useful such figures may be, are not essential
         to compliance with the duty to state reasons for a decision imposing fines; in any event, the Commission cannot, by mechanical
         recourse to arithmetical formulas alone, divest itself of its own power of assessment (Case C‑182/99 P Salzgitter v Commission [2003] ECR I‑10761, paragraph 75).
      
      335    As regards the reasons underlying the setting of the amount of fines in absolute terms, it must be borne in mind that fines
         constitute an instrument of the Commission’s competition policy and the Commission must be allowed a margin of discretion
         when fixing their amount in order that it may channel the conduct of undertakings towards observance of the competition rules
         (Case T‑150/89 Martinelli v Commission [1995] ECR II‑1165, paragraph 59). 
      
      336    Moreover, it is important to ensure that fines are not easily foreseeable by economic operators. If the Commission were required
         to indicate in its decision the figures relating to the method of calculating the amount of fines, the deterrent effect of
         those fines would be undermined. If the amount of the fine were the result of a calculation which followed a simple arithmetical
         formula, undertakings would be able to predict the possible penalty and to compare it with the profit that they would derive
         from the infringement of the competition rules. 
      
      337    In the present case, it must be noted that in recitals 522 to 553 of the contested decision the Commission set out the factors
         which it took into account in calculating the fines on the basis of the gravity of the infringement of each of the undertakings
         concerned. Those recitals plainly set out the reasoning followed by the Commission in a clear and detailed manner, thereby
         allowing the applicant to ascertain the factors taken into account in order to measure the gravity of the infringement for
         the purposes of calculating the amount of the fine and the Court to exercise its power of review. It must therefore be held
         that the contested decision satisfies the duty to state reasons imposed on the Commission under Article 253 EC.
      
      338    Concerning the applicant’s argument that its fine is disproportionate and excessive when compared with its turnover, it is
         sufficient to recall that, as the Commission is not obliged to calculate the fine by reference to amounts based on the turnover
         of the undertakings concerned, it is likewise not required to ensure, where fines are imposed on several undertakings involved
         in the same infringement, that the final amount of the fines produced by the calculation for the undertakings concerned reflects
         any distinction between them regarding their total turnover or their turnover in the relevant product market (Dansk Rørindustri and Others v Commission, paragraph 90 above, paragraphs 255 and 312).
      
      339    Further, Community law contains no general principle that the penalty be proportionate to the undertaking’s size on the product
         market in respect of which the infringement was committed (Case C‑397/03 P Archer Daniels Midland and Archer Daniels Midland Ingredients v Commission [2006] ECR I‑4429, paragraph 101).
      
      340    Article 15(2) of Regulation No 17 likewise does not require that, where fines are imposed on several undertakings involved
         in the same infringement, the fine imposed on a small or medium-sized undertaking must not be greater, as a percentage of
         turnover, than those imposed on the larger undertakings. It is clear from that provision that, both for small or medium-sized
         undertakings and for larger undertakings, account must be taken, in determining the amount of the fine, of the gravity and
         duration of the infringement. Where the Commission imposes on undertakings involved in a single infringement fines which are
         justified, for each of them, by reference to the gravity and duration of the infringement, it cannot be criticised on the
         ground that, for some of them, the amount of the fine is greater, by reference to turnover, than that imposed on other undertakings
         (Case T‑21/99 Dansk Rørindustri v Commission [2002] ECR II‑1681, paragraph 203).
      
      341    The applicant’s argument that the disproportionate nature of the fine imposed is obvious when its amount is compared with
         that of fines imposed on other undertakings in similar cases must also be rejected. The Commission cannot be compelled to
         set fines that are proportionate to turnover and also perfectly coherent with those imposed in earlier cases. 
      
      342    It must be emphasised, in that connection, that the Commission’s practice in earlier decisions does not in itself serve as
         a legal framework for fines in competition matters. The fact that in the past the Commission has applied fines of a particular
         level for certain types of infringements does not mean that it is estopped from raising that level within the limits indicated
         by Regulation No 17 if that is necessary to ensure implementation of Community competition policy (Musique diffusion française and Others v Commission, paragraph 278 above, paragraph 109).
      
      343    Furthermore, the gravity of infringements must be established by reference to numerous factors, such as the particular circumstances
         of the case, its context and the deterrent effect of fines; moreover, no binding or exhaustive list of the criteria which
         must be applied has been drawn up (Ferriere Nord v Commission, paragraph 316 above, paragraph 33, and LR AF 1998 v Commission, paragraph 275 above, paragraph 236). The relevant data, such as the markets, the products, the countries, the undertakings
         and the periods concerned differ in each case. It follows that the Commission cannot be compelled to impose on undertakings
         fines whose amount corresponds to the identical percentage of their respective turnovers in cases that are comparable as regards
         the gravity of the infringements (see, to that effect, Case T‑67/01 JCB Service v Commission [2004] ECR II‑49, paragraphs 187 to 189).
      
      344    In this respect, it must be borne in mind that the Court has power to assess, in the exercise of its unlimited jurisdiction
         under Article 229 EC and Article 17 of Regulation No 17, the appropriateness of the amount of the fines. 
      
      345    In the present case, the Court finds that the infringement is particularly serious in the light of certain factors, as observed
         by the Commission at recitals 534, 535 and 539 to 542 of the contested decision, in particular the oligopolistic nature of
         the market and the fact that the infringement in question affected all or almost all plasterboard supply on the four national
         markets covered by the cartel. Further, the size of the market concerned, both geographically and in terms of value, was large.
         The four markets concerned were the four main Community plasterboard markets and accounted for approximately 80% of the total
         value of the Community market, which amounted to EUR 1.21 billion in the last complete year of the infringement. Lastly, having
         regard to the nature of the product concerned, the cartel necessarily had an impact on a substantial part of the construction
         market and thus affected a sector which is very important for the whole of the economy. 
      
      346    Moreover, it is not evident that the starting amount set according to the gravity of the infringement in the present case
         is more severe than that imposed in other cases, having regard to the size of the market in question. However, that comparison
         does not mean that the size of the relevant market is the best or only criterion for comparing the fines imposed in different
         cartels. Comparison between different cartels is difficult, given the large number of the various factors that the Commission
         may take into account in order to assess the gravity of the infringement. Further, as was recalled at paragraph 342 above,
         such a comparison, in any event, only serves as an indication, since the Commission’s practice in earlier decisions cannot
         itself constitute a legal framework for fines in competition matters. 
      
      347    Given the numerous factors which made the infringement particularly serious in the present case (see paragraph 345 above),
         the Court finds that the starting amount of the fine imposed on the applicant determined according to the gravity of the infringement
         is proportionate. 
      
      348    Lastly, the applicant’s argument that its fine would have been less severe had the Commission brought the administrative procedure
         to an end at an earlier stage, given that it is only very recently that it has increased the general level of penalties, must
         be rejected. Even if it is accepted that the general level of fines has increased during the period of the administrative
         procedure, it is sufficient to recall that the fact that the Commission, in the past, imposed fines of a certain level for
         certain types of infringement does not mean that it is estopped from raising that level within the limits indicated in Regulation
         No 17 if that is necessary to ensure the implementation of Community competition policy. On the contrary, the proper application
         of the Community competition rules requires that the Commission may at any time adjust the level of fines to the needs of
         that policy (Musique diffusion française and Others v Commission, paragraph 273 above, paragraph 109, and judgment of the Court of Justice in Dansk Rørindustri and Others v Commission, paragraph 90 above, paragraph 169). 
      
      349    It follows from all the foregoing that the applicant’s arguments seeking to show that the starting amount of the fine determined
         according to the gravity of the infringement was disproportionate must be rejected. 
      
       – Duration of the infringement 
       Arguments of the parties
      350    The applicant considers that the Commission incorrectly assessed the duration of the alleged infringement on the basis of
         separate and distinct facts. The Commission was wrong to conclude that it had committed an infringement lasting from 31 March
         1992 to 25 November 1998, namely six years and seven months, amounting to an infringement of long duration justifying an increase
         of 65% of the starting amount of the fine. 
      
      351    The applicant maintains that the alleged infringements relate to two separate periods. The first includes the London meeting
         and the exchange of information between Mr [A] and the cousins of the Knauf family from 1992 to early or mid-1993, and the
         second includes information exchanges from mid‑ or late 1993 to 1998 between Mr [D] and the CEOs of the undertakings in question.
         Those events have no connection with other alleged infringements, which occurred in the period 1994 to 1998 or with the information
         exchanges on United Kingdom sales from mid‑1992 to February 1998. 
      
      352    In those circumstances, the applicant maintains that there was no complex and continuous agreement and contends that, under
         Regulation (EEC) No 2988/74 of the Council of 26 November 1974 concerning limitation periods in proceedings and the enforcement
         of sanctions under the rules of the European Economic Community relating to transport and competition (OJ 1974 L 319, p. 1),
         infringements occurring before the five-year period ending with the commencement of the Commission inspections are time barred
         and cannot be the subject of any fine. 
      
      353    Moreover, the applicant maintains that Mr [D] continued the information exchanges in March and November 1998, even though
         it had prohibited them in March 1998. The applicant considers that it cannot be responsible for action taken by an employee
         who is acting contrary to its instructions and that the end of the infringement should therefore be set at the end of March
         1998. 
      
      354    The applicant further claims that the Guidelines are unclear on the question whether the Commission is entitled to take into
         account partial years. Adopting a strict interpretation of the Guidelines, the applicant submits that the Commission was entitled
         only to impose an increase of 60% of the starting amount, rather than 65%, that is to say 10% for each complete year of infringement.
         
      
      355    The applicant also observes that the Commission should not always apply a 10% increase, as it has automatically in all the
         recent cartel cases. The Commission should take account of all the relevant circumstances of the case in determining the increase
         of the fine. It adds that that was the Commission’s practice in its Decisions 98/273/EC of 28 January 1998 relating to a proceeding
         under Article [81 EC] (Case IV/35.733 – VW) (OJ 1998 L 124, p. 60) and 2002/190/EC of 21 December 2000 relating to a proceeding
         under Article 81 [EC] (Case COMP.F.1/35.918 – JCB) (OJ 2002 L 69, p. 1), and in the pre-insulated heating pipes case, in which
         it took account of the intensity of the infringement in the different periods.
      
      356    The Commission considers that BPB’s arguments are yet another attempt to challenge the Commission’s finding in the contested
         decision of a single, complex and continuous infringement. 
      
      357    As regards the conduct of Mr [D], the Commission contends that it is not required to distinguish between various organs of
         the undertakings, some of whom are actively involved in the cartel and some of whom were attempting to put an end to the infringement.
      
      358    According to the Commission, there is nothing in the Guidelines to indicate that the Commission must confine itself to increasing
         the amount of fines only for complete years of infringements. It explains that the risk of having to pay a much larger fine,
         proportionate to the duration of the infringement, will necessarily increase the incentive to denounce it or to cooperate
         with the Commission. Any other approach would be inconsistent with its stated goal of increasing the fine proportionately
         to the duration of the infringement. 
      
       Findings of the Court
      359    The applicant’s arguments seeking to show that this case involves separate infringements, part of which is therefore time
         barred, overlap with those set out in the third plea. Thus, since the Court held earlier that the Commission did not err in
         finding that it was a single and continuous infringement, the applicant’s arguments must be rejected. 
      
      360    The applicant’s argument that its participation in the infringement would have already come to an end in March 1998 if Mr
         [D] had not disobeyed its instructions is irrelevant. An undertaking – that is to say an economic unit comprising personal,
         tangible and intangible elements (Case 19/61 Mannesmann v High Authority [1962] ECR 357, 371) – is directed by the organs provided for in its articles of association and any decision imposing a
         fine on it may be addressed to the management as provided for in those articles of association (management board, management
         committee, chairman, manager, and so on). The rules of competition would be easily circumvented if the Commission, faced with
         unlawful conduct on the part of an undertaking, were required to ascertain and to prove who is the author of the various activities,
         which could have the effect of preventing it from penalising the undertaking which benefited from the cartel. 
      
      361    As regards the applicant’s assertion that the Guidelines are unclear on the question whether the Commission is entitled to
         take into account partial years, it is sufficient to note that nothing in the Guidelines prevents the actual duration of the
         infringement from being taken into account in the calculation of the amount of the fine. Such an approach is entirely logical
         and reasonable and falls, in any event, within the Commission’s discretion. 
      
      362    As regards the applicant’s objection to the fact that the Commission automatically applied the maximum rate of 10% per year,
         it must be borne in mind that, even if the third indent of the first paragraph of Section 1.B of the Guidelines does not provide
         that there should be an automatic increase of 10% per year for infringements of long duration, it leaves the Commission a
         margin of assessment in that connection (Cheil Jedang v Commission, paragraph 331 above, paragraph 134). 
      
      363    In the present case, at recital 554 of the contested decision, the Commission found that BPB had committed the infringement
         for six years and seven months, that is a long duration for the purposes of the Guidelines, and it thus increased the amount
         of the fine determined on the basis of the gravity of the infringement to 65%. It is apparent from this that the Commission
         complied with the rules which it had imposed upon itself in the Guidelines. Furthermore, the Court considers that, having
         regard to the duration of the infringement, the increase of 65% is not disproportionate in the present case. 
      
      364    So far as concerns the applicant’s assertion that the Commission did not take account of the different levels of intensity
         of the infringement during the period in question, it must be borne in mind that the increase is calculated by the application
         of a certain percentage to the starting amount which is determined according to the gravity of the infringement as a whole,
         thus already reflecting the different levels of intensity of the infringement. Thus, it would not be logical to take into
         account, for the increase of that amount on the basis of the duration of the infringement, a variation in the intensity of
         the infringement during the period concerned.
      
      365    In so far as BPB submits that in other cases concerning restrictions of a similar nature and duration the Commission applied
         increases in respect of the duration of the infringement that were lower than that applied in the present case, it is sufficient
         to point out that the Commission’s practice in earlier decisions does not in itself serve as a legal framework for fines in
         competition matters, since that framework is defined solely in Regulation No 17 and that, moreover, economic operators cannot
         have a legitimate expectation that an existing situation which is capable of being altered by the Commission in the exercise
         of its discretionary power will be maintained (judgment of the Court of Justice in Dansk Rørindustri and Others v Commission, paragraph 90 above, paragraph 171). 
      
      366    It follows that the complaint alleging that the Commission erred in increasing the amount of the fine in respect of the duration
         of the infringement must be rejected. 
      
       Repeated infringement
       Arguments of the parties
      367    The applicant considers that the increase of 50%, that is EUR 66 million, of the basic amount of the fine for repeated infringement
         is excessive and disproportionate. 
      
      368    First, the applicant claims that the role played by its subsidiary in the earlier infringement was minor and passive (Commission
         Decision 94/601/EC of 13 July 1994 relating to a proceeding under Article [81 EC] (IV/C/33.833 – Cartonboard) (OJ 1994 L 243,
         p. 1)). Consequently, the fine ultimately imposed on its subsidiary was only EUR 750 000. Moreover, the earlier infringement
         was penalised more than eight years before the contested decision was issued. The applicant maintains that the Commission
         is not entitled to determine an increase mechanically on the basis of the existence of an earlier infringement. It should
         take account of all the circumstances of the earlier infringement: its nature, the circumstances in which it was committed,
         how long ago it took place and the penalty imposed. The applicant refers to a number of jurisdictions to show that the nature
         of any earlier infringement and the time that has elapsed since it was committed are taken into account when a court envisages
         an increase of the penalty for repeat offences. 
      
      369    Second, the applicant claims that the Commission is not entitled to increase the fine on account of repeated infringement
         where the first offence is contemporaneous with the second offence. In this case, the decision in Cartonboard (see paragraph
         368 above) was adopted on 13 July 1994 and, accordingly, the increase of 50% should have been applied only as from that time.
         According to the applicant, the increase should therefore be reduced accordingly to EUR 43.7 million. Looked at another way,
         the aggravation factor should only be applied to the fine increased in respect of the duration of the infringement from July
         1994. In that case, the amount to be added for aggravating circumstances would be EUR 56 million. 
      
      370    Third, the applicant maintains that the increase is excessive and disproportionate because it exceeds the starting amount
         of the fine imposed in respect of the gravity of the infringement on Knauf, Lafarge and Gyproc. 
      
      371    Fourth, the applicant claims that the increase exceeded the 30% decrease in the fine awarded to it to recognise its cooperation
         with the Commission in this case. Reductions granted for cooperation should be real and should not be cancelled out on account
         of the increase for repeated infringment.
      
      372    Fifth, the applicant claims that there is only one Commission decision, that concerning the British Sugar case (see paragraph
         264 above), in which the increase was higher, namely 75% of the basic amount, and that, in that case, the increase was based
         on British Sugar’s role as instigator of the first infringement. In the light of the circumstances of that case and of Commission
         Decision 2002/405/EC of 20 June 2001 relating to a proceeding pursuant to Article 82 [EC] (COMP/E‑2/36.041/PO – Michelin)
         (OJ 2002 L 143, p. 1), the increase of 50% which was applied to it is excessive. 
      
      373    Finally, the applicant claims that the Commission applied to it the same increase in respect of repeated infringement as to
         Lafarge even though the infringement committed by Lafarge in the case which gave rise to Commission Decision 94/815/EC of
         30 November 1994 relating to a proceeding under Article [81 EC] (Cases IV/33.126 and 33.322 – Cement) (OJ 1994 L 343, p. 1)
         was more serious than that penalised in the Cartonboard case. The Commission should have taken account of the differences
         between the two earlier cartels, in particular Lafarge’s significant role, the long duration of the cartel in which Lafarge
         had participated and the fact that Lafarge had been fined EUR 14.9 million for that infringement. By not taking account of
         those differences and by imposing the same increase of 50% on both the undertakings, the Commission infringed the principle
         of equal treatment. 
      
      374    The Commission considers repeat offending to be an aggravating circumstance because the undertaking commits a further infringement
         despite having been penalised for an infringement of the same type and therefore having received a clear warning that those
         actions were unlawful and not to be repeated.
      
      375    As regards the applicant’s argument that the first and second infringements are contemporaneous and that the increase should
         be applied pro rata, the Commission maintains that the applicant fails to take account of the aim of the increase, which is
         to penalise the undertaking’s willingness to infringe the competition rules despite earlier penalties being imposed.
      
      376    It is wholly irrelevant whether the increase for repeat offending is above or below the starting amount of the fine imposed
         on other undertakings or the reduction granted on account of BPB’s cooperation.
      
      377    According to the Commission, BPB has added a complaint which was not made in the application, namely that the Commission should
         have considered the length of time that has elapsed since its previous offence which, according to the reply, took place ‘more
         than eight years before the decision in this case was issued’. That complaint is inadmissible under Article 44(1)(c) of the
         Rules of Procedure.
      
       Findings of the Court
      378    It follows from the case‑law that the taking into account of aggravating circumstances when setting the amount of the fine
         is consistent with the Commission’s task of ensuring compliance with the competition rules (Case C‑308/04 P SGL Carbon v Commission [2006] ECR I‑5977, paragraph 71).
      
      379    Thus, any repeated infringement is among the factors to be taken into consideration in the analysis of the gravity of the
         infringement in question (Aalborg Portland and Others v Commission, paragraph 36 above, paragraph 91).
      
      380    The applicant’s argument that the Commission did not correctly take account of all the circumstances of the earlier infringement
         must be rejected.
      
      381    First of all, as regards the period of time which elapsed between the two infringements, it is common ground that the first
         infringement was penalised after the beginning of the infringement at issue.
      
      382    In accordance with settled case-law, the Commission has a discretion as regards the choice of factors to be taken into account
         for the purposes of determining the amount of fines, such as the particular circumstances of the case, its context and the
         dissuasive effect of fines, there being no need to refer to a binding or exhaustive list of the criteria which must be taken
         into account (order in Case C‑137/95 P SPO and Others v Commission [1996] ECR I-1611, paragraph 54, and Case C‑219/95 P Ferriere Nord v Commission [1997] ECR I-4411, paragraph 33). 
      
      383    It must be emphasised that the finding and the appraisal of the specific characteristics of a repeated infringement come within
         the Commission’s discretion and that the Commission cannot be bound by any limitation period when making such a finding. Repeated
         infringement is an important factor which the Commission must appraise, since the purpose of taking repeated infringement
         into account is to induce undertakings which have demonstrated a tendency towards infringing the competition rules to change
         their conduct. The Commission may therefore, in each individual case, take into consideration the indicia which confirm such
         a tendency, including the time that has elapsed between the infringements in question.
      
      384    In this respect, it should be noted that the Court has held that a time lapse of less than 10 years between the findings of
         two infringements showed a tendency on the part of an undertaking not to draw the appropriate conclusions from a finding that
         it had infringed the competition rules (Case T‑38/02 Groupe Danone v Commission [2005] ECR II‑4407, paragraphs 354 and 355).
      
      385    A fortiori, in the present case, the history of the infringements found against the applicant shows a tendency on its part not to draw
         the appropriate conclusions from a finding that it had infringed the competition rules, given that, having already been the
         subject of Commission measures imposed previously by the decision in the Cartonboard case, the applicant continued for more
         than four years to participate actively in the cartel at issue in the present case after that decision had been notified to
         it. 
      
      386    In those circumstances, it is not necessary to examine the admissibility of the applicant’s argument relating to the period
         of time which elapsed between the sanctioning of the first infringement and the issuing of the contested decision. 
      
      387    Next, with regard to the characteristics of the previous conduct, the concept of repeated infringement does not necessarily
         imply that a fine has been imposed in the past, but merely that a finding of infringement of Community competition law has
         been made in the past (Groupe Danone v Commission, paragraph 384 above, paragraph 363).
      
      388    The purpose of taking repeated infringement into account is to induce undertakings which have demonstrated a tendency towards
         infringing the competition rules to change their conduct when it transpires that a previous finding of infringement on its
         part has not been sufficient to prevent the repetition of unlawful conduct. Thus, it is not the previous imposition of a fine,
         and a fortiori not the amount thereof, which is determinative of repeated infringement, but the fact that a previous finding of infringement
         has been made.
      
      389    Lastly, the applicant does not even claim that the infringement for which its subsidiary was penalised in the Cartonboard
         case is not of the same type as that in question in this case.
      
      390    Consequently, the Commission did not err in finding, in the present case, that the specific circumstances of the case, in
         particular the fact that the same undertaking had already been the subject of a finding of infringement and that, despite
         that finding and the penalty imposed, it had continued to participate in a similar infringement of the same Treaty provision,
         were proof of repeated infringement.
      
      391    Concerning the applicant’s argument that where the first offence is contemporaneous with the second offence the Commission
         is entitled to increase the amount of the fine on account of repeated infringement only from the time of the adoption of the
         first decision penalising one of those offences, it must be rejected.
      
      392    It is true that a policy of penalising repeated infringement can have no practical effect on the perpetrator of an infringement
         unless the threat of a more severe penalty for a new infringement is capable of inducing him to change his conduct. The taking
         into account of a repeated infringement is justified by the need to ensure a higher level of deterrence, as demonstrated by
         the fact that a previous finding of an infringement had not been sufficient to prevent the repetition of the infringement.
         Thus, a repeated infringement necessarily arises after the finding and the sanctioning of the first infringement, since it
         is explained by the fact that that penalty was not a sufficient deterrent. 
      
      393    In this respect, in Thyssen Stahl v Commission, paragraph 270 above, the Court of First Instance held that the Commission’s decision was vitiated by an error of law in so
         far as the increase of the amount of the fine imposed on Thyssen Stahl AG was based on the consideration that the Commission
         had already penalised it for similar infringements by Decision 90/417/ECSC of 18 July 1990 relating to a proceeding under
         Article 65 of the ECSC Treaty concerning an agreement and concerted practices engaged in by European producers of cold‑rolled
         stainless steel flat products (OJ 1990 L 220, p. 28), whilst, in the case then before the Court, the greater part of the infringement
         period, from 30 June 1988 to the end of 1990, taken into account against Thyssen Stahl, pre-dated that decision (paragraphs
         617 to 625).
      
      394    However, unlike in Thyssen Stahl v Commission, paragraph 270 above, in which the greater part of the infringement took place before the first decision, in the present
         case, BPB continued to participate in the cartel in question for more than four years after the decision adopted in the Cartonboard
         case. 
      
      395    As stated in paragraph 382 above, the assessment of the specific characteristics of a repeated infringement depends on an
         appraisal of the circumstances of the case by the Commission in the course of its discretion.
      
      396    In the circumstances of the present case, the Court holds that the Commission did not exceed its discretion in finding that
         the fact that BPB had continued to participate, after the first finding of an infringement, in a similar infringement of the
         same Treaty provision for more than four years was proof of repeated infringement, and in therefore increasing the amount
         of the fine for that reason. 
      
      397    With regard to the level of that increase, the Court recalls that, when fixing the amount of the fine, the Commission has
         discretion. In this respect, it is not required to apply specific mathematical formulae (Michelin v Commission, paragraph 273 above, paragraph 292). 
      
      398    Furthermore, in the context of deterrence, repeated infringement justifies a significant increase in the basic amount of the
         fine. It is evidence that the sanction previously imposed was not sufficiently deterrent (Michelin v Commission, paragraph 273 above, paragraph 293).
      
      399    As regards the rate of increase applied in the present case, the Court considers that it is proportionate. In this respect,
         it should be noted that the decision adopted in the Cartonboard case and the contested decision concern similar infringements.
         The consequences of that finding cannot be called in question by the applicant’s assertion that the role played by its subsidiary
         in the Cartonboard case was minor and passive. What matters is the fact that, despite the finding that there has been an infringement
         of Community competition law, the undertaking in question continued to infringe it. Accordingly, the Commission was entitled
         to increase the basic amount of the fine by 50% in order to channel the conduct of the applicant towards observance of the
         Treaty competition rules.
      
      400    In so far as the applicant’s argument that the increase on account of repeated infringement was not proportionate relies,
         in essence, on the fact that the increase in absolute terms (EUR 66 million) is disproportionate, it must be rejected. 
      
      401    When setting an increase for repeated infringement, the Commission may confine itself to examining what would be the proportional
         percentage and does not need to take into account the amount, in absolute terms, of the increase of the basic amount of the
         fine as a result of the application of that percentage. As long as the percentage increase is not excessive, the increase
         in absolute terms is only the mathematical consequence of the application of that percentage to the basic amount, whose proportionality
         in relation to the gravity and duration of the infringement in question was examined separately.
      
      402    Consequently, the increase of 50% of the basic amount of the applicant’s fine on account of repeated infringement is not disproportionate.
      
      403    So far as concerns the Commission’s previous practice, the applicant claims that there is only one Commission decision, in
         the British Sugar case, in which the increase was higher (75%), and that, in that case, the increase was based on British
         Sugar’s role as instigator of the first infringement. The applicant considers that, in the light of the circumstances of that
         case, the increase of 50% applied to it is excessive. 
      
      404    As regards the comparisons with other Commission decisions imposing fines for infringements of the competition rules, those
         decisions can be relevant from the point of view of observance of the principle of equal treatment only where it is demonstrated
         that the facts of the cases in those other decisions are identical to those of the present case (see, to that effect, JCB Service v Commission, paragraph 343 above, paragraph 187).
      
      405    However, the applicant has failed to adduce sufficient evidence that those conditions have been met in the present case. In
         particular, the applicant does not refer to any decisions contemporaneous with that of the present case in which the Commission
         applied a lower percentage increase for circumstances similar to those of the present case. As regards the reference to the
         Michelin decision, in which Michelin was penalised for repeated infringement in respect of a rebate system designed to secure
         customers’ loyalty, that is clearly a different set of circumstances from those of the present case, since such a rebate system
         cannot be deemed equivalent, in terms of the gravity of the Community competition law infringement, to a secret cartel concerning
         prices and the stabilisation of a market of considerable value. 
      
      406    In any event, the mere fact that, in another decision, the Commission increased the basic amount for a repeated infringement
         differently does not mean that it was required to apply the same percentage increase in the contested decision. The Commission’s
         practice in previous decisions does not itself serve as a legal framework for the fines imposed in competition matters, since
         that framework is defined solely in Regulation No 17 (Michelin v Commission, paragraph 273 above, paragraph 292).
      
      407    The applicant also maintains that the increase is excessive and disproportionate because it exceeds the starting amount of
         the fine imposed for the gravity of the infringement on Knauf, Lafarge and Gyproc. 
      
      408    That argument is irrelevant. Since BPB’s fine was determined correctly and the increase for repeated infringement is proportionate,
         the fact that the increase in absolute terms is higher than the starting fines imposed on the other cartel participants is
         just a mathematical consequence of the increase which is unrelated to the amount of the other fines. 
      
      409    The applicant also claims that the increase was more than the 30% decrease in the fine awarded in recognition of its cooperation
         with the Commission in this case. 
      
      410    That argument is also irrelevant, since they are two separate stages in determining the amount of the fine.
      
      411    Finally, the applicant claims that the Commission applied to it the same increase for repeated infringement as to Lafarge
         even though the infringement committed by Lafarge in the Cement case was more serious than that penalised in the Cartonboard
         case. 
      
      412    That argument is also unfounded. As explained above, since the increase for repeated infringement relates to an aggravating
         circumstance specific to the undertaking in question, the fact that the characteristics of the earlier infringement committed
         by Lafarge are not analogous to those of the earlier infringement attributed to the applicant is irrelevant. What is relevant
         is the fact that both undertakings were previously involved in very serious infringements, but that, despite the finding of
         those infringements, they did not bring to an end their involvement in the infringement penalised in the case in point.
      
      413    It follows from all the foregoing that the applicant’s arguments relating to the taking into account of the repeated infringement
         must be rejected. 
      
       Attenuating circumstances
       Arguments of the parties
      414    The applicant considers that the Commission should have reduced the amount of the fine by virtue of the measures taken before
         and after the Commission’s investigation. It submits that the Commission was wrong to regard its efforts as ineffective. The
         Commission’s refusal to recognise its efforts is contrary to the principles of equal treatment and protection of legitimate
         expectations.
      
      415    First, the applicant claims that, on the basis of allegations contained in the anonymous letter, it engaged the services of
         independent lawyers to carry out its own investigations (‘Project Alpha’). On the basis of the conclusions of Project Alpha,
         the applicant’s Board of Directors implemented a more formal competition law compliance programme, under which it adopted
         a more formal policy statement on compliance which the directors, the other officers and members of staff concerned were required
         to sign. The applicant also decided to cease all information exchanges and instructed a firm of lawyers to help it design
         and implement various further elements of its formal compliance programme.
      
      416    Second, the applicant claims that, after the opening of the Commission investigation, the measures taken by it evinced a high
         level of cooperation. It gave the inspectors unhindered access to its business records and computers. It also provided the
         documents requested and Mr [D] accurately answered the questions put by the Commission. Moreover, it provided the Commission,
         in its reply to the second request for information, with information of which the Commission had no previous knowledge. The
         applicant considers that, because of its efforts to bring the infringement to an end even before the start of the Commission’s
         investigations and its willing cooperation during the investigations, the amount of its fine should be further reduced.
      
      417    The applicant rejects the Commission’s argument that it destroyed or concealed evidence. The applicant states that those allegations
         are not supported by any evidence. It states that, although documents were removed in connection with Project Alpha, a note
         recording their removal was left in the file. 
      
      418    Third, with regard to the fact that its CEO, Mr [D], disobeyed the instructions of its Board of Directors and continued the
         information exchanges without the knowledge of the Board or that of any of the staff, the applicant considers that it cannot
         be held responsible for Mr [D]’s activities, particularly because of his independent position. The applicant also claims that
         when Mr [D]’s continued information exchanges came to light, he had to leave his position immediately without any compensation.
         The applicant states that Mr [D]’s failure to obey its instructions was the only occasion on which its efforts to terminate
         the infringement failed. Consequently, the Commission cannot say that the measures taken by the applicant were ineffective.
         
      
      419    Fourth, the applicant maintains that it withdrew from the information exchange system in April 1998. Thus, had it not been
         for Mr [D]’s wilful disregard of the instructions from the Board of Directors, there would have been total compliance from
         March 1998. Furthermore, it submits that it is entitled to a reduction of the fine for having terminated the infringement
         immediately after the Commission’s intervention. 
      
      420    Fifth, the applicant submits that it did not profit from the infringement. Prices remained at the same level in real terms
         in the United Kingdom and fell in Germany whilst its costs were rising. Moreover, its market share in each of the four markets
         concerned was less in 1998 than in 1992 and its turnover did not reach its 1991–1992 level until 1997–1998. Furthermore, prices
         would have recovered in any event following the end of the price war. The applicant considers that if the Commission can increase
         the amount of a fine on account of profits obtained following an infringement, it should also take account of the absence
         of any profit from the infringement and reduce the amount of the fine. 
      
      421    The Commission disputes the applicant’s arguments. 
      
      422    The Commission considers that, in its reply, BPB sets out a new argument seeking a reduction of the amount of the fine for
         ceasing the infringement after the Commission’s investigations at the end of 1998. That new argument is inadmissible at this
         stage of the procedure. It is also unfounded since the Commission is not required, as a general rule, either to regard the
         continuation of an infringement as an aggravating circumstance or to regard the termination of an infringement as a mitigating
         circumstance. 
      
       Findings of the Court
      423    First, with regard to the measures adopted by the applicant in order to prevent a repeated infringement on its part (the dismissal
         of its senior executive officers involved in the offending conduct and the adoption of internal programmes to ensure compliance
         with the competition rules and awareness‑raising initiatives for the staff in that connection), it should be noted that, whilst
         it is indeed important that an undertaking takes steps to prevent fresh infringements of Community competition law from being
         committed by members of its staff in the future, that circumstance cannot affect the fact that an infringement was found to
         have been committed. It follows that the mere fact that in certain cases the Commission took the implementation of a competition
         law compliance programme into consideration as a mitigating factor does not mean that it is obliged to act in the same manner
         in any given case (Case T‑224/00 Archer Daniels Midland and Archer Daniels Midland Ingredients v Commission [2003] ECR II‑2597, paragraph 280).
      
      424    The Commission is therefore not required to take a circumstance such as that into account as a mitigating factor, provides
         that it adheres to the principle of equality of treatment, which requires that it should not assess the matter differently
         for any undertaking addressed by the same decision (judgment of the Court of First Instance in Archer Daniels Midland and Archer Daniels Midland Ingredients v Commission, paragraph 423 above, paragraph 281). There is no indication whatsoever in the contested decision that the Commission’s assessment
         differentiated in this respect as between the four undertakings in question, and the applicant does not claim that that was
         the case. 
      
      425    Second, the applicant claims that the measures that it took after the opening of the Commission investigation evinced a high
         level of cooperation and that, consequently, its fine should be further reduced. Those arguments overlap with the question
         whether the Commission correctly took account of the applicant’s cooperation in the context of the Leniency Notice. Accordingly,
         the applicant’s cooperation during the administrative procedure will be examined below, but does not constitute an attenuating
         circumstance justifying a reduction separate from that granted under the Leniency Notice.
      
      426    It should, however, be borne in mind that the possibility of granting to an undertaking which has cooperated with the Commission
         during proceedings for infringement of the competition rules a reduction of the fine outside the framework laid down by the
         Leniency Notice is recognised by the Guidelines, the sixth indent of Section 3 of which provides for the taking into account,
         as an attenuating circumstance, of ‘effective cooperation by the undertaking in the proceedings, outside the scope of the
         [Leniency Notice]’.
      
      427    However, to the extent that this complaint must be interpreted as seeking a finding that the Commission should have granted
         the applicant another reduction of its fine under that provision, it must be pointed out that the infringements in the present
         case fall well within the scope of application of the Leniency Notice, Section A.1, first subparagraph, of which refers to
         secret cartels between undertakings aimed at fixing prices, production or sales quotas, sharing markets or banning imports
         or exports. The applicant cannot therefore validly complain that the Commission failed to take into account the extent of
         its cooperation as an attenuating circumstance outside the legal framework of the Leniency Notice (Case T‑15/02 BASF v Commission [2006] ECR II‑497, paragraph 586).
      
      428    Moreover, such a complaint cannot be levelled at the Commission, even if it were necessary to accept that cooperation with
         an investigation into horizontal cartels which fix prices and share sales is capable of being rewarded under the sixth indent
         of Section 3 of the Guidelines. If that were to be the case, a reduction under that provision would necessarily mean that
         the cooperation in question was not capable of reward under the Leniency Notice and that it was effective, that is to say,
         that it facilitated the Commission’s task of finding and putting an end to infringements of the competition rules (BASF v Commission, paragraph 427 above, paragraphs 587 and 588).
      
      429    Third, the applicant considers that it cannot be held responsible for the fact that Mr [D], its CEO, disobeyed the instructions
         of its Board of Directors and continued the information exchanges without the knowledge of the Board or of any of the staff.
      
      430    That argument is irrelevant. An undertaking – that is to say an economic unit comprising personal, tangible and intangible
         elements (Case 19/61 Mannesmann v High Authority, paragraph 360 above, 357, 371) – is directed by the organs provided for in its articles of association and any decision
         imposing a fine on it may be addressed to the management as provided for in those articles of association (management board,
         management committee, chairman, manager, and so on). The rules of competition would be easily circumvented if the Commission,
         faced with unlawful conduct on the part of an undertaking, were required to ascertain and to prove who is the author of the
         various activities, which could have the effect of preventing it from penalising the undertaking which benefited from the
         cartel. 
      
      431    Although BPB claims to have been betrayed by its former CEO, who failed to follow the explicit instructions of his Board of
         Directors, the solution to that conflict must be sought in the relationship between Mr [D] and BPB, and not at the level of
         the Commission’s application of competition law. Thus, even if Mr [D] did in actual fact disobey the instructions of BPB’s
         Board of Directors and continue the information exchanges without the latter’s knowledge, the Commission was entitled to impose
         a fine on the undertaking, whilst BPB and/or its owners were free to pursue any action deemed appropriate against Mr [D].
         
      
      432    Fourth, the applicant maintains that it withdrew from the information exchange system in April 1998. Thus, had it not been
         for Mr [D]’s wilful disregard of the instructions from the Board of Directors, there would have been total compliance from
         March 1998. 
      
      433    That argument overlaps in part with the previous one and is no more relevant. Since the applicant is responsible for Mr [D]’s
         activities, the infringement continued until November 1998. 
      
      434    Furthermore, the Commission rightly found that, even if the withdrawal from the information exchange system demonstrated a
         willingness to avoid conduct which could give rise to suspicion, it was not accompanied by other measures designed to put
         an end to the collusive arrangements, as illustrated by the continued exchange of information or the discussions which took
         place between competitors at The Hague. 
      
      435    As regards the applicant’s argument relating to the termination of the infringement after the Commission’s investigation,
         which the Commission regards as inadmissible, it must be stated that the applicant already referred, in its application, to
         ‘prompt termination of the infringement as a mitigating factor’. Thus, that argument does not constitute a new plea for the
         purposes of Article 48(2) of the Rules of Procedure but the amplification of a plea made previously, whether directly or by
         implication, in the original application and must be considered admissible (see Case C‑66/02 Italy v Commission [2005] ECR I‑10901, paragraph 86, and the case-law cited).
      
      436    Under the third indent of Section 3 of the Guidelines, ‘termination of the infringement as soon as the Commission intervenes
         (in particular when it carries out checks)’ is an attenuating circumstance. However, a reduction of the fine by reason of
         the termination of an infringement as soon as the Commission intervenes cannot be automatic but depends on an appraisal of
         the circumstances of the case by the Commission in the course of its discretion. In that regard, the application of that provision
         of the Guidelines in favour of an undertaking will be particularly appropriate where the conduct in question is not manifestly
         anti‑competitive. Conversely, its application will be less appropriate, as a general rule, where the conduct is clearly anti‑competitive,
         on the assumption that it is proven (Case T‑44/00 Mannesmannröhren‑Werke v Commission [2004] ECR II‑2223, paragraph 281; see also, to that effect, judgment of 15 June 2005 in Joined Cases T‑71/03, T‑74/03, T‑87/03
         and T‑91/03 Tokai Carbon and Others v Commission [2005], not published in the ECR, paragraphs 292 and 294).
      
      437    Even if, in the past, the Commission has regarded voluntary termination of an infringement as an attenuating circumstance,
         it is entitled, when applying its Guidelines, to take account of the fact that, even though their illegality was established
         at the inception of Community competition policy, very serious manifest infringements are relatively frequent and, therefore,
         to take the view that it is appropriate to abandon that generous practice and no longer reward the termination of such an
         infringement by a reduction of the fine.
      
      438    In those circumstances, the appropriateness of a reduction of a fine by reason of termination of the infringement depends
         on whether the applicant could reasonably doubt the illegality of its conduct.
      
      439    In the present case, it should be recalled that the infringement in question relates to a secret cartel whose object was an
         exchange of information in an oligipolistic market and a stabilisation of markets. That type of cartel constitutes a very
         serious infringement. The undertakings concerned must therefore have been aware of the unlawful nature of their conduct. The
         secret nature of the cartel confirms moreover the fact that the undertakings concerned were aware of the unlawful nature of
         their actions.
      
      440    Accordingly, for the reasons set out above, the failure in the present case to take the termination of the infringement as
         soon as the Commission intervened into account as an attenuating circumstance cannot be regarded as incorrect. 
      
      441    Fifth, with regard to the applicant’s argument that the Commission did not take account of the fact that it had not benefited
         from the infringement in question, it must be borne in mind that, whilst the amount of the fine imposed on an undertaking
         must be proportionate to the duration of the infringement and the other factors capable of affecting the assessment of the
         gravity of the infringement, including the profit that it was able to derive from those practices, the fact that an undertaking
         did not benefit from an infringement cannot preclude the imposition of a fine since otherwise it would cease to have a deterrent
         effect (Case T‑52/02 SNCZ v Commission [2005] ECR II‑5005, paragraph 89).
      
      442    Lastly, it must be stated that, although the Commission may, under its Guidelines (Section 2, fifth indent) and in respect
         of aggravating circumstances, increase a fine in order to exceed the amount of gains improperly made as a result of the infringement,
         that possibility does not mean that the Commission is then under an obligation to establish in every case, for the purpose
         of determining the amount of the fine, the financial advantage linked to the infringement found to have been committed. In
         other words, the absence of such an advantage cannot be regarded as an attenuating circumstance (SNCZ v Commission, paragraph 441 above, paragraph 91). 
      
      443    Consequently, the applicant’s arguments seeking to obtain a reduction in respect of attenuating circumstances must be rejected.
      
       Cooperation
       Arguments of the parties
      444    The applicant maintains that the Commission infringed the principle of the protection of legitimate expectations and the principle
         of fairness by deciding that the measures taken by it merited a reduction of only 30% of the amount of the fine in accordance
         with Section D of the Leniency Notice. The applicant considers that it should have been granted a reduction of 50% to 75%
         of the amount of the fine in accordance with Section C of the Leniency Notice. 
      
      445    The applicant submits that it provided decisive information on which the contested decision relied heavily. For example, that
         the Commission would not have obtained any information concerning the London meeting, which was the factual basis of the start
         of the infringement, without its admission in response to the second request for information. In that connection, it states
         that the Commission’s question related only to the information exchanges conducted under the direction of the chief executives
         of the four companies in question. It could therefore have confined itself strictly to answering that question. However, in
         the meantime, it had learned from its former Chairman and Chief Executive, Mr [A], that a meeting had taken place in 1992.
         It chose to disclose that meeting and what took place. That was therefore a major admission. The information exchanges in
         the United Kingdom and the advance warning of one or two list price rises in the United Kingdom would likewise not have come
         to light without its cooperation. It states that, on a fully voluntary basis, it admitted that there had been discussions
         on the attempt to share the German markets in Versailles and also admitted in its reply to the statement of objections that
         other discussions had taken place in Brussels at the end of 1997 and at a dinner in The Hague, even though it contends that
         no agreement had been concluded. The applicant states that it also admitted its participation in the information exchange
         system. Moreover, even though certain information concerning those exchanges was obtained from the inspection of BPB’s head
         office, the information provided by BPB gave the Commission a better understanding of the exchanges. 
      
      446    Although Knauf confirmed the existence of the London meeting and the Commission also relied to some extent on the evidence
         provided by Knauf concerning that meeting, Knauf acted in that way only because the meeting was referred to in the statement
         of objections. Knauf would have had nothing to confirm if BPB had not disclosed the existence of the meeting prior to the
         issue of the statement of objections. Moreover, after its initial inspections, the Commission was not in a position to initiate
         an administrative procedure because, rather than doing so, it continued the preliminary investigation phase by issuing requests
         for information to the undertakings concerned. One of those requests, addressed to the applicant, was based entirely on information
         it had provided voluntarily. It was therefore only after the receipt of the applicant’s information that the Commission was
         in a position to issue the statement of objections. 
      
      447    The applicant claims that, had Mr [D] not disobeyed its instructions, it would have already ended its involvement in any infringement
         eight months before the Commission’s inspection. 
      
      448    The applicant further observes that it did not compel any other undertaking to take part in the cartel, did not instigate
         it and did not play a determining role in the offending conduct at issue. 
      
      449    Finally, the applicant maintains that, even if the Commission were right to grant it a reduction only under Section D of the
         Leniency Notice, it infringed the principle of equal treatment by granting Gyproc a reduction of 40% and as regards the applicant
         a reduction of only 30%. The information provided by it was more decisive for the Commission’s arguments on the ground that
         the information provided by Gyproc related exclusively to the period 1996 to 1998 and to the German market. As regards the
         Commission’s argument that Gyproc’s participation in the infringement was less serious than the applicant’s, the applicant
         takes the view that the extent of the reduction of the amount of the fine the Commission grants to an undertaking should depend
         on the quality of the information provided, and not on the gravity of an undertaking’s participation in the infringement.
         
      
      450    The applicant adds that the Commission is not entitled to treat it differently from Gyproc on the basis that Gyproc did not
         contest the facts or their classification as infringements. It emphasises that its objections related mainly to the inferences
         the Commission drew from the facts rather than the facts themselves. 
      
      451    The Commission considers that its findings under the Leniency Notice could only be annulled if they were vitiated by an error
         of fact or a manifest error of assessment.
      
      452    The Commission claims that, with the exception of paragraphs 5, 6 and 9 of the table set out on pages 151 to 154 of the application,
         the information referred to by the applicant was provided either in response to requests for information or given orally in
         response to questions during investigations. The Commission considers itself entitled not to take account of information of
         that kind when assessing the cooperation of an undertaking. The Commission states that it took account of the fact that the
         answers were very detailed and on occasion went further than was necessary to give a full answer.
      
      453    As regards the information given spontaneously, the Commission contends that, as regards paragraph 6 of the table, it already
         had the information indicated at recitals 201 and 205 of the contested decision. It states that, even before BPB’s admissions,
         it had sufficient information about paragraph 9 (and paragraph 10) of the table. As regards paragraph 5, although the information
         was useful and the Commission took account of it to determine the reduction of the amount of the fine under the Leniency Notice,
         it adds that there were two reports to Mr [D] mentioned in paragraph 77 of the statement of objections. They contain detailed
         information on sales of the other producers, which could have provided the basis for further inquiries on that question, even
         though it was not decisive in itself. Thus, much of the information provided by BPB was not decisive. 
      
      454    As regards the London meeting, the Commission does not deny that that meeting is an important element of the infringement,
         but states that, without the information provided on that subject, it would still have been able to establish the existence
         of a single, complex and continuous infringement on the basis of the anti-competitive conduct as a whole, including the information
         exchanges regarding which it had direct contemporary proof. Moreover, the information concerning the London meeting was provided
         in response to a specific question in the second request for information concerning the origins of the exchange of information,
         so that its disclosure was not absolutely spontaneous. Also, the Commission’s second request for information was not based
         entirely on the information provided voluntarily by BPB. In fact, the second part of that request related to information provided
         orally by Mr [D] following the discovery of the two series of tables setting out details of sales by the four major European
         producers on BPB’s premises on the first day of the Commission’s investigation on 25 November 1998. 
      
      455    Consequently, the Commission contends that none of the information provided by BPB was decisive evidence of the cartel’s existence.
      
      456    The Commission emphasises that Gyproc’s participation in the infringement was less serious than that of BPB. On the other
         hand, in relation to those elements of the cartel in which it participated actively, Gyproc provided important information.
         Thus, the findings concerning the German market are heavily based on Gyproc’s contribution. The Commission maintains that
         the information given by that undertaking was as valid for the finding of the infringement as that provided by BPB. Moreover,
         Gyproc’s statement of 1 September 1999 was not a reply to a request for information. In addition, Gyproc has never contested
         that those activities constituted an infringement of Article 81(1) EC. 
      
       Findings of the Court
      457    In the Leniency Notice, the Commission set out the conditions under which undertakings cooperating with it during its investigation
         into a cartel may be exempted from a fine or be granted a reduction in the fine which would otherwise have been imposed on
         them (see Section A, paragraph 3 of the Leniency Notice).
      
      458    As is stated in Section E, paragraph 3, of the Leniency Notice, the notice has created legitimate expectations on which undertakings
         may rely when disclosing the existence of a cartel to the Commission. In view of the legitimate expectation which undertakings
         intending to cooperate with the Commission are able to derive from the notice, the Commission must therefore adhere to the
         notice when, for the purpose of determining the fine to be imposed on an undertaking, it assesses the latter’s cooperation
         (Case T‑26/02 Daiichi Pharmaceutical v Commission [2006] ECR II‑713, paragraph 147).
      
      459    In accordance with Section B of the notice, an undertaking ‘will benefit from a reduction of at least 75% of the fine or even
         from total exemption from the fine that would have been imposed if [it] had not cooperated’ if it:
      
      ‘(a) informs the Commission about a secret cartel before the Commission has undertaken an investigation, ordered by decision,
         of the [undertakings] involved, provided that it does not already have sufficient information to establish the existence of
         the alleged cartel; 
      
      (b)       is the first to adduce decisive evidence of the cartel’s existence; 
      (c)      puts an end to its involvement in the illegal activity no later than the time at which it discloses the cartel; 
      (d)      provides the Commission with all the relevant information and all the documents and evidence available to it regarding the
         cartel and maintains continuous and complete cooperation throughout the investigation; 
      
      (e)      has not compelled another [undertaking] to take part in the cartel and has not acted as an instigator or played a determining
         role in the illegal activity’. 
      
      460    Furthermore, pursuant to Section C of the notice, ‘[undertakings] which both satisfy the conditions set out in Section B,
         paragraphs (b) to (e) and disclose the secret cartel after the Commission has undertaken an investigation ordered by decision
         on the premises of the parties to the cartel which has failed to provide sufficient grounds for initiating the [administrative]
         procedure leading to a decision, will benefit from a reduction of 50% to 75% of the fine’. 
      
      461    The applicant submits, principally, that the Commission was wrong to deny it the reduction of 50% to 75% referred to in Section
         C of the Leniency Notice. It is thus necessary to ascertain whether the Commission failed to have regard to the conditions
         for applying that provision. 
      
      462    In the present case, the relevant question for deciding whether Section C was applicable in the determination of the amount
         of the fine imposed on the applicant is whether the investigations carried out by the Commission provided it with sufficient
         grounds for initiating the administrative procedure leading to the contested decision. 
      
      463    The Commission states at recitals 593 and 594 of the contested decision that following its investigations, it had enough information
         to prove the existence of the cartel and that since BPB did not meet the conditions of Section B(b) of the Leniency Notice,
         it was therefore not eligible for a major reduction in the amount of its fine under Section C of the Notice. 
      
      464    In this respect, it is important to note that the applicant does not claim that it provided decisive evidence in relation
         to all the manifestations of the cartel or that the Commission would not have been able to demonstrate the existence of the
         cartel without the evidence that it provided the Commission. It asserts, in essence, that the Commission would not have been
         able to prove the existence of a single and complex cartel in the way that it did. 
      
      465    Consequently, it is necessary to ascertain whether, following its investigations, the Commission had enough information to
         prove the existence of the cartel which was ultimately penalised. 
      
      466    As regards the London meeting, BPB disclosed information about that meeting only in its reply to the second request for information
         (of 21 September 1999) in response to a specific question: ‘Please state at whose suggestion or initiative the exercise of
         exchanging data amongst the CEO’s was initiated.’
      
      467    Thus, since it already knew about the exchanges of information on sales volumes on the four markets concerned, the Commission
         had, on the basis of the investigations carried out in November 1998, sufficient grounds for initiating the administrative
         procedure leading to a decision. 
      
      468    In this respect, it must be borne in mind that in Case C‑301/04 P Commission v SGL Carbon [2006] ECR I‑5915 the Court held that replies given pursuant to Article 11(1) of Regulation No 17 did not constitute voluntary
         cooperation but the performance of an obligation. It recalled that, in carrying out the duties assigned to it in the matter,
         the Commission could obtain all necessary information from the governments and competent authorities of the Member States
         and from undertakings and associations of undertakings. The Commission is therefore entitled to compel an undertaking to provide
         all necessary information concerning such facts as may be known to it and to disclose to it, if necessary, such documents
         relating thereto as are in that undertaking’s possession, even if the latter may be used to establish, against it or another
         undertaking, the existence of anti‑competitive conduct (paragraphs 34, 39, 41 and 44).
      
      469    As regards the exchanges of information on sales volumes on the four markets concerned, it is not contested by the applicant,
         as is indeed apparent from paragraph 334 of the application, that the Commission found direct evidence of those exchanges
         during the investigations which it carried out in November 1998. 
      
      470    As for the exchanges of information on sales volumes and market shares in the United Kingdom, the Commission states that two
         reports to Mr [D], mentioned in paragraph 77 of the statement of objections, contained detailed information on sales of the
         other producers, which could have provided the basis for further inquiries on that question, even though it was not sufficient
         in itself. 
      
      471    In that connection, it is noteworthy that the documents mentioned in paragraph 77 of the statement of objections are reports
         by Mr [M], managing director of BG before Mr [N], on developments in the United Kingdom market sent to Mr [D]. Thus, those
         internal documents do not show that the information in question was disclosed to persons outside BPB. However, in its note
         of 17 March 1996 and, in a more detailed manner, in its statement of 28 May 1999, BPB admitted that an exchange of information
         on sales volumes on the United Kingdom had taken place between the competitors during the period 1992 to the beginning of
         1998. 
      
      472    So far as concerns the exchanges of data on price rises on the United Kingdom market, the Commission claims that it already
         had the information set out in recitals 201 and 205 of the contested decision. As is apparent from those recitals, not only
         do the two BPB internal memoranda found during the investigations prove only that the price rises were discussed, but the
         Commission relies on the parallelism of the price rises to demonstrate that aspect of the infringement. In those circumstances,
         the fact that BPB admitted in its note of 17 March 1996 and in a more detailed manner in its statement of 28 May 1999, as
         is clear from recital 207 of the contested decision, that there had been ‘isolated instances’ when Mr [N] had telephoned the
         representatives of Lafarge and Knauf in the United Kingdom to inform them of BG’s pricing intentions and the planned range
         of increases, significantly strengthened the Commission’s reasoning. 
      
      473    Concerning the Versailles and The Hague meetings, only in its reply to the statement of objections did the applicant admit
         that it took part in those meetings. With regard to the Brussels meeting, it admitted that it participated in it only in response
         to an explicit question by the Commission in the context of the first request for information. 
      
      474    Lastly, as regards the information exchange system, it is apparent from recital 271 of the contested decision that the Commission
         knew of its existence on the basis of the information found during the inspections. 
      
      475    Consequently, the Court finds that, to the extent that the information provided by BPB can be regarded as voluntary in the
         light of the case‑law of the Court of Justice referred to in paragraph 468 above, it does not constitute decisive evidence
         of the cartel’s existence and that, in fact, the Commission had sufficient information to establish its existence following
         those inspections. 
      
      476    In the light of the cumulative nature of the conditions set out in Section B(b) to (e) of the Leniency Notice, as referred
         to in Section C thereof, and since at least one of those conditions, namely that laid down in Section B(b), in conjunction
         with Section C of that notice, is not satisfied, it is not necessary to consider whether BPB satisfied the other conditions
         laid down in those provisions. 
      
      477    It follows that the Commission did not err in denying the applicant a reduction in the amount of its fine under Section C
         of the Leniency Notice. 
      
      478    None the less, it is still necessary to ascertain, in the exercise of the Court’s unlimited jurisdiction, whether the reduction
         granted by the Commission in respect of BPB’s cooperation under Section D of the Leniency Notice was sufficient. 
      
      479    In this connection, it must be pointed out, as recitals 592 and 596 of the contested decision make clear, that BPB was the
         first cartel participant to send, after the Commission’s request for information but in a way that went beyond what was requested,
         evidence in addition to that discovered during the inspections, confirming the existence of the cartel. The Commission admits
         that this information includes details regarding the meetings in question, especially that in London, and the sharing of information
         on the major European markets, and the United Kingdom market in particular. 
      
      480    Further, as is apparent from the examination of the second plea, although the Commission could, without knowledge of the London
         meeting, have proved the existence of the cartel, its perception of it would have been different. The Court has found that
         the information provided by BPB, in particular regarding the London meeting, substantially strengthened the Commission’s arguments
         concerning the existence of an overall plan and, consequently, made it possible to substantially increase the amount of the
         fines in respect of the gravity of the infringement. The same reasoning applies to the detailed information that BPB provided
         on the exchanges of information on sales volumes and price rises on the United Kingdom market. That conclusion is supported
         by the numerous references in the contested decision to evidence provided by BPB.
      
      481    Lastly, as is apparent from point 2.2.2 of its reply to the statement of objections and from the examination of the second
         plea, BPB also admitted most of the facts set out in the statement of objections. Similarly, as is apparent from points 1.1.4,
         2.2.2 and 6.2.27 of its reply to the statement of objections, from the examination of the second plea and from the reply to
         the written question of the Court, BPB does not dispute the classification of some of the evidence as infringements of Community
         law. Thus, BPB acknowledged that the London meeting, the exchange of data on the four markets concerned and in particular
         on the United Kingdom market together with an exchange, on one or two occasions, on price rises on the United Kingdom market
         constituted infringements of Article 81 EC. 
      
      482    In the exercise of its unlimited jurisdiction, the Court holds that is appropriate to grant the applicant an additional reduction
         of 10% of the amount of its fine, as calculated before the application of the Leniency Notice, in addition to the 30% already
         granted by the Commission.
      
      483    In those circumstances, it is no longer necessary to examine the applicant’s arguments that the Commission infringed the principle
         of equal treatment in granting a 40% reduction in respect of Gyproc’s cooperation. 
      
      5.     The claim that the Commission should be ordered to repay the amount of the fine or, in the alternative, the amount by which
            the fine is reduced, plus interest 
       Arguments of the parties
      484    The applicant claims that it has already paid the fine. However, it deplores the fact that the rate of interest applicable
         in the event that the Commission is required to repay it wholly or in part is not mentioned in the contested decision. It
         considers that that interest rate should, at the minimum, be the same as that which would have been applied if BPB had provided
         a bank guarantee, namely 4.79%. However, it relies on the wisdom of the Court with regard to the applicable interest rate
         and asks the Court to give a decision on that point if its fine is annulled or the amount thereof is reduced. It also requests
         that default interest be paid from the date of the present judgment until full reimbursement of the sums due by the Commission.
         
      
      485    The Commission considers that those arguments are premature. Moreover, the third head of claim is inadmissible in so far as
         the Court of First Instance cannot order that type of measure. 
      
       Findings of the Court
      486    It has been held on numerous occasions that as a consequence of a judgment of annulment, which takes effect ex tunc and thus has the effect of retroactively eliminating the annulled measure from the legal system, the defendant institution
         is required, by virtue of Article 233 EC, to take the necessary measures to reverse the effects of the illegalities as found
         in the judgment of annulment, and, in the case of a measure that has already been executed, this may take the form of restoring
         the applicant to the position he was in prior to that measure (Case T‑48/00 Corus UK v Commission [2004] ECR II‑2325, paragraph 222).
      
      487    Foremost amongst the measures referred to in Article 233 EC, in the case of a judgment annulling or reducing the fine imposed
         on an undertaking for infringement of the Treaty competition rules, is the Commission’s obligation to repay all or part of
         the fine paid by the undertaking in question in so far as that payment must be characterised as a sum unduly paid following
         the annulment decision. That obligation applies not only to the principal amount of the fine overpaid but also to default
         interest on that amount (Corus UK v Commission, paragraph 486 above, paragraph 223).
      
      488    It follows that, if the Commission did not consent to any default interest on the principal amount of the fine reimbursed
         following such a judgment, it would be failing to take a measure necessary to comply with that judgment and would thereby
         be in breach of its obligations under Article 233 EC.
      
      489    Thus, the claim that the Commission should be ordered to repay the amount by which the fine is reduced, plus interest, is
         inadmissible.
      
      6.     The application for measures of organisation of procedure 
      490    The applicant stated in its application that ‘[t]he Court may wish to consider a measure of inquiry, in the form of an independent
         expert’s report, to determine which of the parties is correct regarding the economic context’. 
      
      491    In so far as that application must be interpreted as an application for measures of organisation of procedure, the Court considers
         that it is not necessary to act on it, given that the examination of the case has demonstrated the clearly anti‑competitive
         nature of the cartel in question. 
      
       Costs
      492    Under Article 87(2) of the Rules of Procedure, the unsuccessful party is to be ordered to pay the costs if they have been
         applied for in the successful party’s pleadings. Under the first subparagraph of Article 87(3) of the Rules of Procedure,
         the Court may, where each party succeeds on some and fails on other heads, order costs to be shared. 
      
      493    In the present case, the Commission has been unsuccessful only in so far as the reduction that it granted in respect of BPB’s
         cooperation was not sufficient. 
      
      494    In such a situation, the Court will make an equitable assessment of the case in holding that the Commission is to pay one
         tenth of its own costs and one tenth of the costs incurred by BPB and that BPB will pay nine tenths of its own costs and nine
         tenths of the costs incurred by the Commission. 
      
      On those grounds,
      THE COURT OF FIRST INSTANCE (Third Chamber)
      hereby:
      1.      Sets the amount of the fine imposed on BPB plc by Article 3 of Commission Decision 2005/471/EC of 27 November 2002 relating
            to a proceeding under Article 81 [EC] against BPB plc, Gebrüder Knauf Westdeutsche Gipswerke KG, Société Lafarge SA and Gyproc
            Benelux NV (Case No COMP/E‑1/37.152 – Plasterboard) at EUR 118.8 million;
      2.      Dismisses the action as to the remainder;
      3.      Orders the Commission to pay one tenth of its own costs and one tenth of the costs incurred by BPB;
      4.      Orders BPB to pay nine tenths of its own costs and nine tenths of the costs incurred by the Commission. 
      
      
      
               Jaeger 
            
            
               Tiili 
            
            
               Czúcz
            
         Delivered in open court in Luxembourg on 8 July 2008.
      
      
               E. Coulon
            
             
            
                     M. Jaeger
            
         
               Registrar
            
             
            
                     President
            
         Table of contents
      
      Facts
      Procedure and forms of order sought
      Law
      1.  The first plea: breach of the rights of the defence
      Arguments of the parties
      Findings of the Court
      2.  The second plea: manifest errors and/or inadequacy of the statement of reasons concerning the application of Article 81(1)EC
      The standard of proof
      Arguments of the parties
      Findings of the Court
      The London meeting
      Arguments of the parties
      Findings of the Court
      Exchanges of information concerning quantities sold in Germany, France, the Benelux and the United Kingdom
      Arguments of the parties
      Findings of the Court
      The exchanges of information on sales volumes in the United Kingdom
      Arguments of the parties
      Findings of the Court
      Exchanges of information on price rises in the United Kingdom from 1992 to 1998
      Arguments of the parties
      Findings of the Court
      The stabilisation of German market shares
      Arguments of the parties
      Findings of the Court
      Exchanges of information on price rises in Germany
      Arguments of the parties
      Findings of the Court
      The geographic scope of the cartel
      3.  The third plea: misapplication of the concept of single infringement
      Arguments of the parties
      Findings of the Court
      4.  The fourth plea: infringement of Articles 253 EC and 15(2) of Regulation No 17 and breach of general principles in the
         calculation of the amount of the fine
      
      The disproportionate nature of the starting amount of the fine determined according to the gravity of the infringement
      The gravity of the infringement
      –  Arguments of the parties
      –  Findings of the Court
      The actual impact of the infringement on the market
      –  Arguments of the parties
      –  Findings of the Court
      The determination of the starting amount of the fine according to the gravity of the infringement
      –  Arguments of the parties
      –  Findings of the Court
      – Duration of the infringement
      Arguments of the parties
      Findings of the Court
      Repeated infringement
      Arguments of the parties
      Findings of the Court
      Attenuating circumstances
      Arguments of the parties
      Findings of the Court
      Cooperation
      Arguments of the parties
      Findings of the Court
      5.  The claim that the Commission should be ordered to repay the amount of the fine or, in the alternative, the amount by
         which the fine is reduced, plus interest
      
      Arguments of the parties
      Findings of the Court
      6.  The application for measures of organisation of procedure
      Costs
      * Language of the case: English.