The General Court has annulled a decision of the European Commission imposing a fine of approximately EUR 790 million on airline companies. The Court found that there was a fundamental contradiction between the grounds and the operative part of the decision. This contradiction infringes the applicants' rights of defence.
On 16 December 2015 the General Court annulled a decision of the European Commission from 2010 imposing a fine of approximately EUR 790 million on eleven airline companies for illegal price fixing with regard to fuel and security surcharges.
Remarkably, the grounds for the Commission's decision were that the airlines had participated in one global cartel, a so-called "single and continuous" infringement of the competition rules. However, the operative part of the decision contains four distinct provisions which seem to establish four separate cartels, with different participants, relating to distinct routes.
The General Court ruled that the grounds and the operative part of the decision are contradictory. It stressed that the rights of defence require the grounds and the operative part of such decisions, which impose heavy fines, to be clear and precise. The undertakings concerned should know unambiguously what they are accused of.
The fact that there is a certain contradiction between the grounds and the operative part of the decision is not necessarily problematic, as long as the undertakings concerned can clearly determine from the operative part of the decision what it is that they are held liable for. After all, they should be able to defend themselves against such assertions. According to the General Court, this was not the case in the present decision.
Nevertheless, the General Court did not rule on the substance of the case. This means that the Commission still can adopt a new decision, which should nevertheless respect the airlines' rights of defence. The Commission is, of course, also entitled to lodge an appeal against the judgment of the General Court.