Brussels, 09/09/2015 (Agence Europe) - In a series of rulings handed down on Wednesday 9 September, the General Court of the EU has reduced the fines imposed by the European Commission in 2012 on Panasonic and Toshiba for the parts they played between 1997 and 2006 in a cartel on colour picture tubes (CRTs) on the European market and upheld the fines imposed at the time (see EUROPE 10745) on the other members of the cartel, Samsung SDI, LG Electronics and Philips.
The fine imposed individually on Panasonic for its participation in the cartel was reduced from €157,478,000 to €128,866,000 and the fine imposed jointly and severally on Panasonic and MTPD, a common Panasonic-Toshiba subsidiary between 2003 and 2007 (case T-82/13), was reduced from €7,885,000 to €7,530,000. The fine imposed jointly and severally on Panasonic, MTPD and Toshiba was brought down from €86,738,000 to €82,826,000. The Court ruled that the Commission had not taken account of the more accurate data provided by Panasonic and MTPD on the value of their direct sales linked to CPTs incorporated within the same group in a finished product and then sold in the European Economic Area (EEA) and had departed from its guidelines without providing any justification.
The Court also annulled the fine of €28,048,000 imposed individually on Toshiba (case T-104/13) for its direct participation in the CPT cartel, ruling that it had not been established that the company was aware or had actually been kept informed of the existence of the cartel and that it intended to contribute by its own conduct to all the common objectives pursued by the participants in the cartel (price-setting, market and client sharing and restricting production) or that it could reasonably have foreseen those objectives and was prepared to take the risk. Accordingly, Toshiba cannot be regarded as having participated in the single and continuous infringement, as regards the period from 16 May 2000 until the creation of MTPD on 31 March 2003.
The other appeals lodged against the 2012 decision by Samsung SDI (T-84/13), LG Electronics (T-91/13) and Philips (T-92/13) were dismissed in their entirety by the Court.
The European Commission welcomed the rulings which largely uphold its decision, underlining in particular that the General Court had confirmed that the Commission was empowered to pursue cartels that have an effect in the European Economic Area, even where these cartels are agreed outside the EEA. (Francesco Gariazzo)