Judgment of the General Court of the EU of 13 December 2016 in Case T‑95/15 Printeos and others Commission
The General Court of the EU has annulled a Commission decision that imposed a EUR 4.73 million fine against Spanish envelope manufacturer Printeos for its participation in a cartel.
The case, which decision was adopted in December 2014, implied fines totaling EUR 19.4 million to the companies Bong Ljungdahl, GPV, Hamelin, Mayer-Kuvert and Tompla for running a cartel in the envelopes’ market. The members of the cartel entered into a settlement that brought about a reduction of 10% of the fine.
Printeos received fine reductions for accepting the settlement and for its cooperation with the Commission during the investigation. In spite of agreeing to the settlement, Printeos bought an appeal against the decision based on a breach of the principle of non-discrimination in the calculation of the settlement fine.
More precisely, Printeos argued that the Commission had failed to explain the reasons why the reductions were granted under a special provision in its fining rules that allows to take the differences between the infringing companies into account.
With regard to this point, the General Court of the EU has found that the obligation to state reasons that is imposed to the Commission becomes even more relevant when the latter deviates from its general method and that, in this case, the Commission had failed at motivating the differences in the reduction of penalties for certain members of the cartel. According to the General Court, the decision did not state adequate reasons for such reduction.
