Action brought on 10 October 2012 - Visa Europe v Commission
(Case T-447/12)
Language of the case: English
Parties
Applicant: Visa Europe Ltd (London, United Kingdom) (represented by: A. Renshaw and J. Aitken, Solicitors)
Defendant: European Commission
Form of order sought
The applicant claim that the Court should:
Annul the Commission's decision of 31 July 2012 given in Case COMP/D1/39398 - Visa MIF, insofar as it rejects Visa Europe's request to modify the debit multilateral interchange fee (MIF) cap made legally binding by the Commission's decision of 8 December 2010; and
Order the defendant to pay the costs of the present proceedings.
Pleas in law and main arguments
In support of the action, the applicant relies on three pleas in law.
First plea in law, alleging that
the Commission breached Art. 41 of the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union, Visa Europe's rights of defence and the principle of sound administration by not providing Visa Europe with the opportunity to effectively make known its views on the relevant facts and on the Commission's objections regarding the alleged shortcomings in the economic study submitted by Visa Europe before definitively rejecting Visa Europe's request to modify the MIF cap.
Second plea in law, alleging that
the Commission breached Art. 9(2)(a) of Regulation 1/2003, the principle of sound administration and Art. 296 TFEU by not comparing the economic study submitted by Visa Europe with the studies previously used to calculate the MIF cap and by relying on irrelevant considerations when rejecting Visa Europe's request to modify the MIF cap.
Third plea in law, alleging that
the Commission committed a manifest error of assessment. It rejected evidence submitted by Visa Europe on the basis of flawed considerations, as well as on the basis of objections inconsistent with the Commission's own precedents. Furthermore, the Commission failed to appreciate that its objections, even if they were correct, would nevertheless fail to justify the refusal to modify the MIF cap.
____________1 - Council Regulation No 1/2003 on the implementation of the rules on competition laid down in Articles [101] and [102] of the [TFEU] (OJ L 1, p. 1)