Judgment of the General Court of 5 October 2020 – Intermarché Casino Achats v Commission
(Case T-254/17) 1
(Competition – Cartels – Administrative procedure – Decision ordering an inspection – Plea of illegality of Article 20 of Regulation (EC) No 1/2003 – Right to an effective remedy – Equality of arms – Obligation to state reasons – Right to inviolability of the home – Reasonable grounds – Evidence of participation in the suspected infringements – Proportionality)
Language of the case: French
Parties
Applicant: Intermarché Casino Achats (Paris, France) (represented by: Y. Utzschneider and J. Jourdan, lawyers)
Defendant: European Commission (represented by: B. Mongin, A. Dawes and I. Rogalski, acting as Agents, and by F. Ninane, lawyer)
Intervener in support of the defendant: Council of the European Union (represented by: S. Boelaert, S. Petrova and O. Segnana, acting as Agents)
Re:
Application based on Article 263 TFEU for annulment of Commission Decision C(2017) 1056 final of 9 February 2017, ordering the applicant and all companies directly or indirectly controlled by it to submit to an inspection in accordance with Article 20(1) and (4) of Council Regulation (EC) No 1/2003 (Case AT.40466 – Tute 1).
Operative part of the judgment
The Court:
Annuls Article 1(b) of Decision C(2017) 1056 final of 9 February 2017, ordering Intermarché Casino Achats and all companies directly or indirectly controlled by it to submit to an inspection in accordance with Article 20(1) and (4) of Council Regulation (EC) No 1/2003 (Case AT.40466 – Tute 1);
Dismisses the action for the remainder;
Orders Intermarché Casino Achats, the European Commission and the Council of the European Union each to bear their own costs.
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1 OJ C 231, 17.7.2017.