The General Court of the European Union has maintained the fines totalling €254 million, imposed by the European Commission in 2018 on nine manufacturers - Elna, Hitachi AIC, Holy Stone, Matsuo, Nichicon, Nippon Chemi-Con, Rubycon, Sanyo and NEC Tokin - for participation in a cartel between 1998 and 2012 in the European market for electrolytic capacitors (EUROPE 11986/9), components used in many electronic devices (personal computers, mobile phones, refrigerators), in a judgment delivered on Wednesday 29 September (joined cases T-341, 342, 343, 344 and 363/18).
In Case T-344/18, the General Court is of the opinion that the Commission did not err in law in finding that the infringement found constituted a repeat offence for NEC, which had already been convicted in May 2010 for cartel conduct on the memory chips (DRAM) market (see EUROPE 10142/28).
In Cases T-342 and 363/18, the General Court is of the opinion that the Commission had jurisdiction to investigate this case because, although the undertakings concerned had their headquarters in Japan and the anticompetitive contacts took place in Japan, the scope of the cartel was worldwide, including the European Economic Area.
In Case T-342/18, the General Court recognises that the Commission could have taken into account fines previously imposed by the authorities of non-Member States in setting the amount of fines imposed, but that it was not required to do so.
More info at: https://bit.ly/3AT0LkT (Original version in French by Mathieu Bion)