Brussels, 02/07/2010 (Agence Europe) - In a ruling (Case C-407/08) on 1 July, the Court kept in place fines of €85.8 million imposed in 2002 on Knauf Gips KG (EUROPE 8349), which had taken part in a plasterboard cartel between 1992 and 1998 (see also C-413/08P concerning Lafarge in EUROPE 10162). The Court nonetheless cancelled the General Court's ruling of 8 July 2008 (EUROPE 9700), which had rejected, for a first time, the appeal by Knauf against the Commission's decision. The Court gave its own ruling on the matter under litigation, confirming the fine in question. In this respect, the Court decided that the Commission made no error of assessment in holding that the companies of the Knauf family (Knauf Gips KG and GKV) should be considered as a single economic unity, an argument challenged by Knauf, and that the company Knauf Gips KG should be considered responsible for all the activities of the Knauf Group. On this last point, the Court pointed out that the notion of company includes any entity carrying out an economic activity, independently of the legal status of that entity and its method of financing. The notion of company must be understood as designating an economic unit even if, from the legal point of view, that economic unit is made up of several legal and natural persons. The existence of an economic unit may be deduced from a bundle of concordant elements. On the second point, the Court cancelled the ruling by the General Court for an error of law, but confirmed the substance, considering that Knauf Gips KG should be held as responsible for the activity of the group as a whole, given that, in reality, GKV did not determine its behaviour on the plasterboard market on its own but depended on Knauf Gips KG. (F.G./transl.jl)