Brussels, 17/03/2014 (Agence Europe) - On Friday 14 March, the European Commission welcomed the decision by the European General Court confirming the legality of the requests for information sent by the Commission in 2011 in an investigation into alleged anti-trust behaviour by seven cement companies.
The appeals were lodged by cement companies Holcim Deutschland, HeidelbergCement and Schwenk Zement of Germany, Holcim of Switzereland, Buzzi Unicem and Italmobiliare of Italy and Portland Valderrivas of Spain and a number of companies that belong to the Cemex group. They accused the Commission of not giving enough details about the alleged crimes and the disproportionate workload for the volume of information required and the binding nature of the response format.
The General Court says there was enough clarity for the alleged crimes to have been seen as complying with the demands of EU rules. The high work load and level of detail required by the response format are undeniable, but the General Court says that this is not disproportionate given the requirements of the investigation and the extent of the alleged crimes. Only the appeal by Schwenk Zement was partially accepted and the General Court says that the fortnight's deadline granted for it to respond to the eleventh set of questions was sufficient.
The Commission says the decisions are important because they confirm the Commission's range of powers for investigating alleged anti-trust cases. (EL)