Judgment of the General Court of 12 May 2015 — Unión de Almacenistas de Hierros de España v Commission

(Case T-623/13) ¹

(Access to documents — Regulation (EC) No 1049/2001 — Documents concerning two national competition procedures — Documents submitted to the Commission by a national authority within the framework of cooperation provided for by EU law — Refusal of access — Exception related to the protection of the purpose of inspections, investigations and audits — Exception related to the protection of the commercial interests of a third party — No obligation for the Institution concerned to carry out a specific and individual examination of the content of the documents concerned in the request for access when the investigation at issue is definitively closed — No need for an organisational measure in the procedure requesting the documents at issue — Failure to take account of the special situation of the applicant)

Language of the case: Spanish

Parties

Applicant: Unión de Almacenistas de Hierros de España (Madrid, Spain) (represented by: A. Creus Carreras and A. Valiente Martin, lawyers)

Defendant: European Commission (represented by: J. Baquero Cruz and F. Clotuche-Duvieusart, acting as Agents)

Intervener in support of the Defendant: The Federal Republic of Germany (represented by: T. Henze, K. Petersen and A. Lippstreu, acting as Agents)

Re:

Action for annulment of Commission decision of 18 September 2013 refusing to grant the applicant access to certain documents concerning the exchange of correspondence between the Commission and the Comisión Nacional de la Competencia (CNC, Spanish national competition commission), as regards two procedures opened by the latter.

Operative part of the judgment

The Court:

Dismisses the action;

Orders the Unión de Almacenistas de Hierros de España is to bear its own costs and to pay those incurred by the European Commission;

Orders the Federal Republic of Germany to bear its own costs.

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¹ OJ C 24, 25.1.2014.