Brussels, 09/07/2009 (Agence Europe) - The European Court of Justice has reduced the fine imposed by the Commission on the British company Archer Daniels Midland (ADM) by €10.29 million. The Commission increased the basic fine imposed on the company for having had an agreement with one of its so-called competitors. In its ruling on Thursday 9 July, the Court stated that the company had not had the chance to defend itself against this part of the charges and the increase is therefore reduced, which corresponds to the amount mentioned above. C-511//06 P - ADM, Cerestar Bioproducts, Hoffmann-La Roche, Haarmann & Reimer and Jungbunzlauur took part in an illegal cartel on the citric acid market between 1991-95.
The Commission has not been phased by this decision, which nonetheless, questions its procedures. The Commissioner for competition's spokesperson said that the, “decisions by the Court are always useful” because they enabled the Commission to improve its procedures when necessary. In this case in point, the statement of objections sent by the Commission had not made the explicit mention in the accusation of the leading role played by ADM, this element was only referred to in the annexes. The Court considers that this resulted in depriving ADM of the right to defence concerning this aspect in the case. The part of the find based on this aspect of behaviour is therefore cancelled. This involved a 35%% increase, bringing the amount of the sanction up from €29.4 million to 39.69. This constitutes an about turn with regard to the previous ruling by the Court of First Instance in the same case. (C.D./trans/rh)