Notice for the OJ

 

Action brought on 10 August 2005 S Scippacercola and Terezakis / Commission

(Case T-306/05)

Language of the case: English

Parties

Applicant(s): Isabella Scippacercola and Ioannis Terezakis (Brussels, Belgium) [represented by: A. Krystallidis, lawyer]

Defendant(s): Commission of the European Communities

Form of order sought

The annulment of the Commission Decision of 2 May 2005 received by the Applicants on 31 May 2005 refusing to open an in-depth investigation of the costs and revenues of AIA SA related to the provision of passenger security services, passenger terminal facilities and car parking services in order to establish whether the charges levied by the Athens International Airport SA constitute an abuse of a dominant position;

an order that the costs of, and occasioned by these proceedings be borne by the Respondent.

Pleas in law and main arguments

The applicants are individual users of the Athens International Airport of Spata. They contest the Commission's final Decision pursuant to Article 7(2) of Regulation 773/2004 ¹ not to open an in-depth investigation of the allegedly excessive airport charges levied by Athens International Airport with regard to passenger security, passenger terminal facilities and car parking services.

The applicants invoke an error of law and a manifest error in the appreciation of facts in so far as the Commission considered that the passenger security controls do not constitute an economic activity within the meaning of Article 82 EC and that the car parking services do not constitute a relevant market.

The applicants further allege that the Commission did not carry out a proper comparison of Athens International Airport of Spata's costs and revenues related to the provision of security services, passenger terminal facilities and car parking services as it did not verify the accuracy and substance of the information supplied by Athens International Airport of Spata.

Furthermore, the applicants submit that the Commission made an error of law by not identifying (i) the use of different rates for passenger terminal facility charges on international and domestic flights and (ii) the levying of a terminal facility charge and a security charge on scheduled flights which are not levied on charter flights.

Finally, the applicants invoke a violation of Article 253 EC in that the Commission did not indicate the costs and revenues of Athens International Airport of Spata on which it based its conclusion that Athens International Airport of Spata does not engage in excessive pricing.

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¹ - Commission Regulation (EC) No 773/2004 of 7 April 2004 relating to the conduct of proceedings by the Commission pursuant to Articles 81 and 82 of the EC Treaty, OJ L 123 of 27 April 2004, p. 18.