In a judgment (Case C-251/22 P) handed down on Thursday 1 February, the Court of Justice of the European Union dismissed in its entirety the appeal lodged by several companies in the Scania group, a producer of heavy goods vehicles, thereby upholding the €880.5 million fine imposed on it by the European Commission in 2017 for illegal cartels between 1997 and 2011 (see EUROPE 12882/18).
In this case, the manufacturers receiving the European Commission’s statement of objections as part of the cartel investigation, including Scania, confirmed their willingness to discuss a settlement with the EU institution with a view to reducing the amount of the fine imposed. Following these discussions, Scania withdrew from the settlement procedure and the Commission continued its investigation (see EUROPE 11597/1).
According to the European judge, Scania failed to demonstrate that, in a previous judgment, the General Court of the EU had failed to assess whether the administrative procedure, resumed against Scania after its withdrawal from the settlement procedure, complied with the principle of impartiality. The mere fact that the same Commission team was responsible for adopting both the settlement decision and the final decision concerning Scania does not in itself call into question the impartiality of that institution.
The Court also rejected Scania’s arguments to the effect that the General Court wrongly characterised the geographical scope of the manufacturer’s conduct at the level of Germany as extending to the entire territory of the European Economic Area. Finally, it adds that the five-year limitation period did not start to run until the infringement came to an end, in January 2011, so the Commission’s power to impose a fine was not time-barred.
See the judgment of the Court of Justice: https://aeur.eu/f/aok (Original version in French by Mathieu Bion)