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SJ Berwin's Community Week: A Weekly Summary Of Competition Law And Policy Developments Issue 432 - 17 July 2009.

Article Excerpt
EU DEVELOPMENTS

Blocking mergers unlawfully - retreat from the high water mark in Schneider Electric?

The European Court of Justice yesterday handed down in its judgment in the European Commission's appeal again the Court of First Instance's judgment in the Schneider Electric case from July 2007. At issue was the extent to which the Commission can be liable in damages to a party whose acquisition the Commission has unlawfully blocked.

A fuller analysis of the European Court of Justice's judgment can be found in the CW Alert sent out yesterday.

ECJ reduces ADM's citric acid cartel fine by €10 million

The European Court of Justice (the "ECJ") has reduced the fine imposed on Archer Daniels Midland Co ("ADM") for taking part in a citric acid cartel in the 1990s. The ECJ ruled that there was insufficient evidence to establish that ADM had played a leading role in the cartel and reduced its fine from €39.69 million to €29.4 million.

In 2001 the European Commission fined five citric acid manufacturers a total of €135.2 million for cartel activities between March 1991 and May 1995. ADM subsequently brought an appeal before the Court of First Instance (the "CFI") for a reduction in its fine. However, that appeal was dismissed and ADM appealed to the ECJ.

Before the ECJ ADM asserted that the CFI had misjudged a number of issues. In particular ADM disputed the CFI's support of the Commission's finding that ADM was a leader of the cartel and argued that, in classifying ADM as a leader, the CFI had relied on items of evidence not referred to specifically in the statement of objections. ADM claimed that it rights of defence...