Luxemburg, 07/04/2006 (Agence Europe) - The European Court of Justice has rejected the appeal by General Motor BV, a company formed by the merger of General Motor Nederland and Opel Nederland, against the judgment of the Court of First Instance of 21 October 2003 confirming the principle of the Commission's penalty of 2000 for infringement of competition rules. The Court reduced the fine imposed by the Commission from 43 million euro to 35,475,000 euro. The Court did not make an error in law in confirming what the Commission said, that from 1996 Opel Nederland had put in place a system of bonuses, the aim of which was to restrict exports, in violation of Treaty rules. According to Community legislation, Opel Nederland was allowed to prohibit its dealers from supplying vehicles to a reseller that did not form part of its sales network, but could not prohibit them from supplying those products to final consumers or to other dealers belonging to that network.