Roquette Frères SA v Directeur général de la concurrence, de la consommation et de la répression des fraudes, and Commission of the European Communities.
Date: 2002-10-22
23 According to settled case-law, fundamental rights form an integral part of the general principles of law observance of which the Court ensures.  For that purpose, the Court draws inspiration from the constitutional traditions common to the Member States and from the guidelines supplied by international treaties for the protection of human rights on which the Member States have collaborated or to which they are signatories.  The ECHR has special significance in that respect (see, in particular, Hoechst, paragraph 13, and Case C-274/99 P Connolly v Commission [2001] ECR I-1611, paragraph 37).
25 In a different connection, the Court has likewise consistently held that, where national rules fall within the scope of Community law and reference is made to it for a preliminary ruling, it must provide all the criteria of interpretation needed by the national court to determine whether those rules are compatible with the fundamental rights the observance of which the Court ensures and which derive in particular from the ECHR (see, in particular, Case C-260/89 ERT [1991] ECR I-2925, paragraph 42, and Case C-159/90 Society for the Protection of Unborn Children Ireland [1991] ECR I-4685, paragraph 31).
27 It should be recalled in that regard that, in paragraph 19 of the judgment in Hoechst, the Court recognised that the need for protection against arbitrary or disproportionate intervention by public authorities in the sphere of the private activities of any person, whether natural or legal, constitutes a general principle of Community law.
42 First, it should be borne in mind that the powers conferred on the Commission by Article 14(1) of Regulation No 17 are designed to enable it to perform its task of ensuring that the competition rules are applied in the common market, the function of those rules being to prevent competition from being distorted to the detriment of the public interest, individual undertakings and consumers (Hoechst, paragraph 25), thereby ensuring economic well-being in the Community.
44 First of all, the coercive measures for which application may be made to national authorities in the implementation of Article 14(6) of Regulation No 17 are intended solely to enable Commission officials to exercise the investigatory powers vested in that institution.  Those powers, which are listed in Article 14(1) of that regulation, are themselves clearly circumscribed.
47 Lastly, Article 14(3) of Regulation No 17 requires the Commission to state reasons for the decision ordering an investigation by specifying its subject-matter and purpose. As the Court has held, this is a fundamental requirement, designed not merely to show that the proposed entry onto the premises of the undertakings concerned is justified but also to enable those undertakings to assess the scope of their duty to cooperate whilst at the same time safeguarding their rights of defence (Hoechst, paragraph 29).
49 Third, an undertaking against which the Commission has ordered an investigation may bring an action against that decision before the Community judicature under the fourth paragraph of Article 173 of the EC Treaty (now, after amendment, the fourth paragraph of Article 230 EC).  If the decision in question were annulled by the Community judicature, the Commission would in that event be prevented from using, for the purposes of proceeding in respect of an infringement of the Community competition rules, any documents or evidence which it might have obtained in the course of that investigation, as otherwise the decision on the infringement might, in so far as it was based on such evidence, be annulled by the Community judicature (see the orders of 26 March 1987 in Case 46/87 R Hoechst v Commission [1987] ECR 1549, paragraph 34, and of 28 October 1987 in Case 85/87 R Dow Chemical Nederland v Commission [1987] ECR 4367, paragraph 17).
50 Clearly, the existence of the power of judicial review so conferred on the Community judicature and the detailed rules, particularly those referred to in paragraphs 43 to 48 above, governing the exercise by the Commission of its investigatory powers, help to protect undertakings against arbitrary measures and to keep such measures within the limits of what is necessary in order to pursue the legitimate interests specified in paragraph 42 of this judgment.
77 In that regard, it should certainly be kept in view that, in relation to the proportionality of the investigation measure itself, the Court has held that the Commission's choice between an investigation by straightforward authorisation and an investigation ordered by a decision does not depend on matters such as the particular seriousness of the situation, extreme urgency or the need for absolute discretion, but rather on the need for an appropriate inquiry, having regard to the special features of the case.  The Court has concluded in that regard that, where an investigation decision is solely intended to enable the Commission to gather the information needed to assess whether the Treaty has been infringed, such a decision is not contrary to the principle of proportionality (National Panasonic v Commission, cited above, paragraphs 28 to 30).
78 Similarly, it is in principle for the Commission to decide whether a particular item of information is necessary to enable it to bring to light an infringement of the competition rules (AM & S Europe v Commission, paragraph 17; Case 374/87 Orkem v Commission [1989] ECR 3283, paragraph 15).  Even if it already has evidence, or indeed proof, of the existence of an infringement, the Commission may legitimately take the view that it is necessary to order further investigations enabling it to better define the scope of the infringement, to determine its duration or to identify the circle of undertakings involved (see to that effect, in relation to requests for additional information, Orkem v Commission, cited above, paragraph 15).
82 On the other hand, as the Court has previously held in relation to the statement of reasons for investigation decisions themselves, it is not indispensable that the information communicated should precisely define the relevant market, set out the exact legal nature of the presumed infringements or indicate the period during which those infringements were committed (Dow Benelux v Commission, cited above, paragraph 10).
83 The Commission is also obliged to indicate as precisely as possible the evidence sought and the matters to which the investigation must relate (National Panasonic v Commission, cited above, paragraphs 26 and 27), as well as the powers conferred on the Community investigators.
93 Similarly, the Commission's duty to cooperate in good faith is of particular importance vis-à-vis the judicial authorities of a Member State who are responsible for ensuring that Community law is applied and respected in the national legal system (order in Zwartfeld, cited above, paragraph 18).  The Commission must therefore provide, with the minimum of delay, any additional information thus requested by the competent national court which is such as to satisfy the requirements set out in paragraph 90 of this judgment.