European Commission v Keramag Keramische Werke GmbH and Others.
Date: 2017-01-26
26


It must be noted that the appraisal by the General Court of the probative value of the documents before it cannot, save where the rules on the burden of proof and the taking of evidence have not been observed or the evidence has been distorted, be challenged before the Court of Justice (judgment of 19 December 2013, Siemens v Commission, C‑239/11 P, C‑489/11 P and C‑498/11 P, not published, EU:C:2013:866, paragraph 129 and the case-law cited).
27


By contrast, the question whether the General Court observed the rules relating to the burden of proof and the taking of evidence in its examination of the rules relied on by the Commission to support the existence of an infringement of the competition rules of the European Union constitutes a question of law which is amenable to judicial review on appeal (judgment of 19 December 2013, Siemens v Commission, C‑239/11 P, C‑489/11 P and C‑498/11 P, not published, EU:C:2013:866, paragraph 130 and the case-law cited).
28


As the General Court recalled in paragraph 105 of the judgment under appeal, an admission by one undertaking accused of having participated in a cartel, the accuracy of which is contested by several other undertakings similarly accused, cannot be regarded as constituting adequate proof of an infringement committed by the latter undertakings unless it is supported by other evidence, given that the degree of corroboration required may be lesser in view of the reliability of the statements at issue (see, again, judgment of 19 December 2013, Siemens v Commission, C‑239/11 P, C‑489/11 P and C‑498/11 P, not published, EU:C:2013:866, paragraph 135).
38


Next, it is settled case-law that it is for the Courts of the European Union to decide, in the light of the circumstances of the case and in accordance with the provisions of the rules of procedure on measures of inquiry, whether it is necessary for a document to be produced. So far as concerns the General Court, it is apparent from the provisions of Article 49 in conjunction with Article 65(b) of its Rules of Procedure, in the version applicable at the date of the judgment under appeal, that a request for production of any document relating to the case is a measure of inquiry which the Court may order at any stage of the proceedings (see, to that effect, judgments of 2 October 2003, Salzgitter v Commission, C‑182/99 P, EU:C:2003:526, paragraph 41 and the case-law cited; of 2 October 2003, Aristrain v Commission, C‑196/99 P, EU:C:2003:529, paragraph 67 and the case-law cited; of2 October 2003, Ensidesa v Commission, C‑198/99 P, EU:C:2003:530, paragraph 28 and the case-law cited; and of 2 October 2003, Corus UK v Commission, C‑199/99 P, EU:C:2003:531, paragraph 67 and the case-law cited).
39


Lastly, it follows from the settled case-law of the Court of Justice that, while the General Court cannot be required to give express reasons for its assessment of the value of each piece of evidence presented to it, in particular where it considers that that evidence is unimportant or irrelevant to the outcome of the dispute, that is subject to its obligation to observe general principles and the rules of procedure relating to the burden of proof and the adducing of evidence and not to distort the true sense of the evidence (see, to that effect, judgment of 15 June 2000, Dorsch Consult v Council and Commission, C‑237/98 P, EU:C:2000:321, paragraph 51).
50


As to whether it is well founded, it is common ground that, since the prohibition on participating in anticompetitive practices and agreements and the penalties which offenders may incur are well known, it is normal for the activities which those practices and those agreements entail to take place in a clandestine fashion, for meetings to be held in secret, most frequently in a non-member State, and for the associated documentation to be reduced to a minimum. Even if the Commission discovers evidence explicitly showing unlawful contact between traders, such as the minutes of a meeting, it will normally be only fragmentary and sparse, so that it is often necessary to reconstitute certain details by deduction (see judgment of 7 January 2004, Aalborg Portland and Others v Commission, 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, EU:C:2004:6, paragraphs 55 and 56).
51


Moreover, the existence of anticompetitive practices or agreements must, in most cases, be inferred from a number of coincidences or indicia which, taken together, may, in the absence of another plausible explanation, constitute evidence of an infringement of the competition rules (see judgment of 17 September 2015, Total Marketing Services v Commission, C‑634/13 P, EU:C:2015:614, paragraph 26 and the case-law cited).
52


In addition, it must be borne in mind that, in order to establish that there has been an infringement of Article 101(1) TFEU, the Commission must produce firm, precise and consistent evidence. However, it is not necessary for every item of evidence produced by the Commission to satisfy those criteria in relation to every aspect of the infringement. It is sufficient if the body of evidence relied on by that institution, viewed as a whole, meets that requirement (see, to that effect, judgment of 1 July 2010, Knauf Gips v Commission, C‑407/08 P, EU:C:2010:389, paragraph 47).
55


However, that chart was put forward by the Commission only as a piece of corroborating evidence. By requiring such evidence to contain all the information needed to show that prices were fixed at the AFICS meeting on 25 February 2004, the General Court failed to consider whether the evidence, viewed as a whole, could be mutually supporting, and failed to have regard to the case-law set out in paragraphs 50 to 52 of the present judgment (see, to that effect, judgment of 25 January 2007, Salzgitter Mannesmann v Commission, C‑411/04 P, EU:C:2007:54, paragraphs 44 to 48).
61


Furthermore, whether or not the evidence before it is sufficient is a matter to be appraised by the General Court alone and is not subject to review by the Court of Justice on appeal, except where that evidence has been distorted or the substantive inaccuracy of the findings of the General Court is apparent from the documents in the case (see, to that effect, judgment of 19 March 2015, Dole Food and Dole Fresh Fruit Europe v Commission, C‑286/13 P, EU:C:2015:184, paragraph 58 and the case-law cited).
96


It must be noted that the applicants at first instance are merely reiterating the arguments already raised before the General Court and are in fact seeking a reassessment by the Court of Justice of the nature of the statement of objections of 26 March 2007. Such an argument must be rejected as inadmissible at the appeal stage (see, by analogy, judgment of 12 September 2006, Reynolds Tobacco and Others v Commission, C‑131/03 P, EU:C:2006:541, paragraph 50 and the case-law cited).
107


It is evident from the case-law of the Court of Justice that the General Court’s obligation to state the reasons for its judgments does not in principle extend to requiring it to justify the approach taken in one case as against that taken in another case, even if the latter concerns the same decision. The Court has also held that, if an addressee of a decision decides to bring an action for annulment, the matter to be tried by the EU judicature relates only to those aspects of the decision which concern that addressee. Unchallenged aspects concerning other addressees, on the other hand, do not, save in special circumstances, form part of the matter to be tried by the EU judicature (see judgment of 11 July 2013, Team Relocations and Others v Commission, C‑444/11 P, not published, EU:C:2013:464, paragraph 66 and the case-law cited).