In a judgment returned on Wednesday 26 September (cases C-98/17 and C-99/17 – see EUROPE 11690), the Court of Justice of the EU overturned the judgment of the General Court of the EU of December 2016 that upheld the fine handed down to the German company Infineon Technologies, on the grounds of an error of law.
In 2014, the European Commission imposed fines totalling €138 million on three companies – Germany's Infineon (€82.8 million), Phillips of the Netherlands (€20.1 million) and Samsung of South Korea – for a cartel on the market for chips for telephone, bank and ID cards in the European Economic Area over the period 2003-2005 (see EUROPE 11147).
After the General Court rejected their respective appeals challenging the existence of the cartel and the level of the fine, Infineon and Phillips appealed to the Court of Justice. In particular, the German company accuses the General Court of examining only five of the eleven alleged unlawful contacts identified by the Commission in 2014.
Based on the summation of the Advocate General (see EUROPE 12001), the Court finds in favour of Infineon. To meet the requirements of full judicial control, the European Court must examine any objection intended to demonstrate that the level of the fine is not in line with the gravity and duration of the infringement observed.
Consequently, the Court rules, the General Court was not able to decline to respond to the argument raised by Infineon that the Commission breached the principle of proportionality by setting the level of the fine without taking account of the limited number of contacts in which the German company allegedly participated.
Taking the view that the 2016 judgment is vitiated by an error of law concerning the exercise of the full judicial competence of the General Court, the Court has asked the General Court to look into the existence of the six illegal contacts on which they did not take position, so that it can ultimately appreciate the proportionality of the level of the fine.
It is worth noting that the Court of Justice confirmed the entire fine handed down to Phillips. (Original version in French by Mathieu Bion)