CELEX: C2001/004/17
Language: en
Date: 2001-01-06 00:00:00
Title: Case T-342/00: Action brought on 13 November 2000 by Petrolessence SA and Société de Gestion et de Restauration Routière S.A. ("Le Mirabellier") against Commission of the European Communities

6.1.2001                EN                     Official Journal of the European Communities                                         C 4/11
Action brought on 13 November 2000 by Petrolessence                       Pleas in law and main arguments
SA and Société de Gestion et de Restauration Routière
S.A. (‘Le Mirabellier’) against Commission of the European                On 9 February 2000, the European Commission adopted a
                           Communities                                    decision whereby it declared the acquisition of Elf Aquitaine
                                                                          S.A. by Totalfina compatible with the common market and
                                                                          with the Agreement on the European Economic Area. That
                                                                          decision was subject to the compliance by Totalfina with a
                          (Case T-342/00)                                 number of undertakings, including the undertaking to sell
                                                                          70 petrol stations located on the French motorway network,
                                                                          specifically set out in a table appended to the decision.
                           (2001/C 4/17)
                                                                          The present case has been brought against the decision of the
                                                                          Commission of 13 September 2000 (SG (2000) D/106729)
                                                                          rejecting the plan submitted by Totalfina S.A., with the purpose
                                                                          of implementing the abovementioned decision of 9 February
                    (Language of the case: French)                        2000 Totalfina/Elf (COMP/M. 1628). That decision rejected
                                                                          the plan put forward on account of the fact that two
                                                                          prospective purchasers, one of which was the applicant itself,
An action against the Commission of the European Communi-                 were not in a position to compete effectively against Totalfina.
ties was brought before the Court of First Instance of the
European Communities on 13 November 2000 by Petrolessen-                  In support of its arguments, the applicant puts forward the
ce S.A. and Société de Gestion et de Restauration Routière S.A.           following pleas in law:
(‘Le Mirabellier’), established in Nancy (France), represented by         —     Breach of essential procedural requirements, within the
Frédéric Puel and Miguel Troncoso Ferrer, of the Brussels Bar.                  meaning of Article 230(2) of the EC Treaty, inasmuch as
                                                                                the contested decision was adopted after the expiry of the
                                                                                period prescribed to that end in point I.4 of the Annex to
                                                                                the abovementioned decision of 9 February 2000.
The applicants claim that the Court should:
                                                                          —     Infringement of Article 2(1) of Regulation No 4064/89 (1)
                                                                                in that various parts of the decision do not take into
—     annul decision SG(2000)D/106729 of 13 September                           account either the actual structure of the market con-
      2000 in so far as it states that the applicants have not                  cerned or of the applicants’ potential competitors, so that
      met the conditions set out in paragraph 1b of the                         the implementation of the abovementioned decision of
      undertakings of the parties in Case Comp/M.1628 —                         9 February does not succeed in developing effective
      Totalfina/Elf and inasmuch as it rejects their application                competition on the market for petrol stations on French
      to take six petrol service stations;                                      motorways.
                                                                          (1) Council Regulation (EEC) No 4064/89 of 21 December 1989 on
—     order the Commission of the European Communities to                     the control of concentrations between undertakings (OJ 1989
      pay all the costs.                                                      L 395, p. 1).