Judgment of the General Court of 10 December 2014 — ONP and Others v Commission

(Case T-90/11) ¹

(Competition — Agreements, decisions and concerted practices — French market for clinical laboratory tests — Decision finding an infringement of Article 101 TFEU — Association of undertakings — Professional body — Subject of the inspection and the enquiry — Conditions for the application of Article 101 TFEU — Infringement by object — Minimum price and barriers to the development of groups of laboratories — Single and continuous infringement — Proof — Errors of assessment of fact and errors of law — Amount of the fine –Section 37 of the 2006 Guidelines on the method of setting fines — Unlimited jurisdiction)

Language of the case: French

Parties

Applicants: Ordre national des pharmaciens (ONP) (Paris, France); Conseil national de l’Ordre des pharmaciens (CNOP) (Paris); and Conseil central de la section G de l’Ordre national des pharmaciens (CCG) (Paris) (represented by: O. Saumon, L. Defalque, T. Bontinck and A. Guillerme, lawyers)

Defendant: European Commission (represented by: F. Castilla Contreras, C. Giolito, B. Mongin and N. von Lingen, acting as Agents)

Intervener in support of the defendant: Labco (Paris, France) (represented by: N. Korogiannakis, M. Coppet and B. Dederichs, lawyers)

Re:

Application for annulment of Commission Decision C(2010) 8952 final of 8 December 2010 relating to a proceeding under Article 101 of the [TFEU] (Case 39510 — Labco v ONP), and, in the alternative, for a reduction in the amount of the fine

Operative part of the judgment

The Court:

Sets the amount of the fine imposed jointly and severally on the Ordre national des pharmaciens (ONP), the Conseil national de l’Ordre des pharmaciens (CNOP) and the Conseil central de la section G de l’Ordre national des pharmaciens (CCG) in Article 3 of Commission Decision C(2010) 8952 final of 8 December 2010 relating to a proceeding under Article 101 of the [TFEU] (Case 39510 — Labco v ONP) at EUR 4.75 million;

Dismisses the application for the remainder;

Orders the European Commission to bear its own costs and one-tenth of those incurred by the ONP, the CNOP and the CCG;

Orders the ONP, the CNOP and the CCG to bear nine-tenths of their own costs;

Orders Labco to bear its own costs.

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¹ OJ C 173, 11.6.2011.