Judgment of the General Court of 28 January 2015 — Akzo Nobel and Others v Commission

(Case T-345/12) ¹

(Competition — Administrative proceedings — European market for hydrogen peroxide and perborate — Publication of a decision finding an infringement of Article 81 EC — Rejection of a request for confidential treatment of information provided to the Commission pursuant to its Leniency Notice — Obligation to state reasons — Confidentiality — Professional secrecy — Legitimate expectations)

Language of the case: English

Parties

Applicants: Akzo Nobel NV (Amsterdam, Netherlands); Akzo Chemicals Holding AB, established in (Bohus, Sweden); Eka Chemicals AB (Farjevagen, Sweden) (represented by: C. Swaak and R. Wesseling, Agents)

Defendant: European Commission (represented by: C. Giolito, M. Kellerbauer and G. Meessen, Agents)

Intervener in support of the defendant: CDC Hydrogene Peroxide Cartel Damage Claims (CDC Hydrogene Peroxide) (Brussels, Belgium) (represented by: T. Funke, lawyer)

Re:

Application for the annulment of Commission Decision C(2012) 3533 final of 24 May 2012 rejecting a request for confidential treatment submitted by Akzo Nobel, Akzo Nobel Chemicals Holding and Eka Chemicals pursuant to Article 8 of Decision 2011/695/EU of the President of the European Commission of 13 October 2011 on the function and terms of reference of the hearing officer in certain competition proceedings (Case COMP/38.620 — Hydrogen Peroxide and perborate).

Operative part of the judgment

The Court:

Dismisses the action;

Orders Akzo Nobel NV, Akzo Chemicals Holding AB and Eka Chemicals AB to pay the costs, including those relating to the proceedings for interim measures.

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¹ OJ C 295, 29.9.2012.