Ziegler SA v European Commission

(Appeal – Competition – Cartels – Article 81(1) EC and Article 53(1) EEA – Legal effects of Commission guidelines – Appreciable effect on trade between Member States – Setting of fines – Effective judicial review – Right to fair legal process – Objective impartiality of the Commission – Principle of equal treatment and non-discrimination – ‘Removals cartel’ – International removal services market in Belgium)

This case offers the Court the opportunity to refine its case-law on the legal effects of the many guidelines issued by the European Commission in its capacity as European Union competition authority. The focus of interest here is the ‘Guidelines on the effect on trade concept’ from 2004 ( 2 ) and the ‘Guidelines on the method of setting fines’ ( 3 ) published in 2006.

In addition, a number of fundamental legal problems connected with the Commission’s conduct of proceedings under antitrust law for the imposition of fines – problems which are the subject of debate time and time again – are also raised. Those problems relate, first, to the calculation of the fine and, second, to the issue of the Commission’s objective impartiality in its capacity as the investigating and decision-making authority.

These questions of law arise in connection with the ‘removals cartel’ which the Commission uncovered on the international removal services market in Belgium a few years ago and which it made the subject of a decision imposing fines (‘the contested decision’) ( 4 ) on 11 March 2008. In addition to nine other companies or groups of companies, the Commission accused Ziegler SA (‘Ziegler’ or ‘the appellant’) of participating in the removals cartel and imposed a fine on it.

The Court will soon be required to deal with a number of further questions of law in the other pending appeal proceedings concerning the removals cartel. ( 6 )