Notice for the OJ

 

Action brought on 21 January 2005 by World Wide Tobacco España against the Commission of the European Communities

(Case T-37/05)

(Language of the case: Spanish)

An action against the Commission of the European Communities was brought before the Court of First Instance of the European Communities on 21 January 2005 by World Wide Tobacco España (WWTE) S.A. of Madrid (Spain), represented by Miguel Odriozola Alén, Marta Marañón Hermoso and Adrian Emch, of the Madrid Bar.

The applicant claims that the Court should:

reduce the fine imposed on WWTE in Article 3 of the Commission Decision of 20 October 2004;

order the Commission to pay the costs.

Pleas in law and main arguments

The decision at issue is the same as in case T-24/05 Standard Commercial and Others v Commission¹.

The grounds put forward by the applicant are similar to those relied on in that case (infringement of the principle of equal treatment and of Article 23(2) of Regulation No 1/2003).

In particular, it is stated that the Commission applied more severe dissuasive factors against the applicant than against other Spanish processors, in the calculation of the basic amount of the fine imposed. Futhermore, the applicant's conduct cannot be imputed to its parent companies Trans-Continental Corporation Leaf Tobacco, Standard Commercial Tobacco Corporation and Standard Commercial Corporation.

Likewise, the applicant submits that the guidelines on the calculation of fines and the principle of the protection of legitimate expectations have been infringed, in so far as the Commission failed to take into consideration attenuating circumstances that it is the first time that the raw tobacco has been investigated, that the applicant put an end to the infringements as soon as the Commission took action, and in 1996 and 1997 the agreements were not implemented.

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¹ - Not yet published in the Official Journal