Brussels, 23/12/2002 (Agence Europe) - Two months after the ruling given by the Court of First Instance annulling its decision to veto the merger between Tetra Laval and Sidel, the Commission has decided to appeal to the European Court of Justice (ECJ). The Commission considers that this ruling "poses legal problems for several aspects of the Commission's work in the control of concentrations" and raises issues concerning the interaction between the merger regulation, the role of commitments in the framework of the control of concentrations and the appropriate level of proof, as well as the proof that the Commission must provide when it vetoes a merger. In other words the Commission's claim is that the Court of First Instance requires a level of proof which is disproportionate and impossible to satisfy in practice for merger-vetoing decisions, the effect of which is to disrupt the equilibrium between the interests of the parties in the merger and the protection of the consumer as foreseen by the regulation on concentrations. Furthermore the Commission claims that the Court of First Instance is going beyond its role, which is to examine the Commission's administrative decisions, by replacing the Commission's view on the matter with its own. The Commission has also announced that it is not going to appeal the Schneider/Legrand ruling in which the Court of First Instance also annulled a decision vetoing a merger. This ruling is restricted to points linked to the facts and to the procedure but confirms the Commission's powers of investigation and the fact that the merger posed serious competition problems in France.