Court of Justice upholds optical disks drives cartel fines but annuls decision in part

 

Court of Justice upholds optical disks drives cartel fines but annuls decision in part

The European Court of Justice has ruled on four separate appeals by Sony, Sony Optiaric, Quanta Storage, and Toshiba Samsung Storage Technology against the General Court judgments that upheld the European Commission's 2015 decision and fines imposed in relation to the optical disk drive cartel.

The appeals raise similar points of legal principle.

The Court of Justice set aside all of the judgments of the General Court.  It partially annulled the Commission’s decision finding that the General Court was incorrect to conclude that the Commission has not breached the companies’ rights of defence.  The Court was not satisfied that the Commission had properly stated its reasons for the decision that the parties had participated in a single and continuous infringement.

However the Court upheld the fines imposed by the Commission as none of the elements raised by the parties as to their participation in the cartel, or public policy, justified it in exercising the discretion to reduce the amount of the penalty.

The judgment is a reminder that infringements against companies should be set out in the statement objections in order to protect the rights of the defence.

Sony Corporation and Sony Electronics v Commission, Sony Optiarc and Sony Optiarc America v Commission, Quanta Storage, Inc v Commission and Toshiba Samsung Storage Technology Corp and Toshiba Samsung Storage Technology Korea Corp v Commission (Cases C‑697/19 P to C‑700/19 P) (T-762/15)

https://curia.europa.eu/jcms/upload/docs/application/pdf/2022-06/cp220101en.pdf