Judgment of the Court of First Instance of 12 December 2007 - BASF and UCB v Commission

(Joined Cases T-101/05 and T-111/05) ¹

(Competition - Agreements, decisions and concerted practices in the vitamin products sector - Choline chloride (vitamin B4) - Decision finding an infringement of Article 81 EC and Article 53 of the Agreement on the European Economic Area - Fines - Deterrence - Repeat infringement - Cooperation during the administrative procedure - Single and continuous infringement)

Languages of the case: English and French

Parties

Applicants: BASF AG (Ludwigshafen, Germany) (represented by: N. Levy, Barrister, J. Temple Lang, Solicitor, and C. Feddersen, Lawyer) and UCB SA (Brussels, Belguim) (represented by J. Bourgeois, J.-F. Bellis and M. Favart, Lawyers)

Defendant: Commission of the European Communities (represented by: in Case T-101/05 A. Whelan and F. Amato and in Case T-111/05 initially O. Beynet and F. Amato, and subsequently X. Lewis and F. Amato, Agents)

Re:

Application for annulment or reduction of the fines imposed on the applicants by the Commission Decision of 9 December 2004 relating to a proceeding under Article 81 [EC] and Article 53 of the EEA Agreement (Case COMP/E-2/37.533 - Choline chloride) (summary published in OJ 2005 L 190, p. 22).

Operative part of the judgment

The Court:

Disjoins Case T-112/05 Akzo Nobel and Others v Commission from Cases T-101/05 and T-111/05 for the purposes of the judgment;

Annuls Article 1(b) and (f) of Commission Decision 2005/566/EC of 9 December 2004 relating to a proceeding under Article 81 [EC] and Article 53 of the EEA Agreement (Case COMP/E-2/37.533 - Choline Chloride) in so far as it makes a finding of infringement against BASF AG and UCB SA during the period before 29 November 1994 in BASF's case and before 14 March 1994 in UCB's case;

In Case T-101/05, sets the fine imposed on BASF at EUR 35.024 million;

In Case T-111/05, sets the fine imposed on UCB at EUR 1.870 million;

Dismisses the remainder of the applications;

In Case T-101/05, orders the parties to bear their own costs;

In Case T-111/05, orders the Commission, in addition to bearing its own costs, to pay 90% of the costs incurred by UCB.

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¹ - OJ C 115, 14.5.2005.