Brussels, 07/12/2012 (Agence Europe) - In a ruling on Case C-441/11 P on 6 December, the European Court of Justice set aside a ruling by the General Court last year (T-210/08 - see EUROPE 10399) cancelling a €104,000 fine levied by the European Commission on the Belgian removals firm Verhuizingen Coppens for its involvement in a cartel in Belgium for international removals over various periods from 1984 to 2003. The Court of Justice said that the General Court had committed an error of law in annulling the Commission's fine on Coppens in full without considering the company's partial involvement in the cartel through its membership of an agreement to submit false estimates to customers. Ruling on the case itself, the Court of Justice said that Coppens had indeed been part of the second cartel, but (like the General Court) it said the Commission had not demonstrated that the company had known about the agreement among the other members of the cartel to provide compensation to competitors which had volunteered not to submit rival bids for the contracts in question. The Court of Justice therefore set aside the Commission's decision in part, reducing the fine to €35,000. Details can be found at: http://curia.europa.eu/jcms/upload/docs/application/pdf/2011-06/cp110063fr.pdf . (FG/transl.fl)