Cartels

On July 27, 2020, the TAR Lazio delivered 15 judgments concerning the 2019  ICA decision, by which 19 companies were found liable for participating in a cartel aimed at rigging a tender procedure in the facility maintenance sector in Italy (the “Decision”).[1]

The TAR Lazio delivered two sets of rulings: on the one hand, it quashed the Decision with respect to three of the addressee companies;[2] on the other hand, with respect to the 12 other applicants, it upheld the finding of infringement, but ordered the ICA to re-determine the fines originally imposed on them.[3]

On July 24, 2020, the Council of State upheld three judgments issued by the Regional Administrative Court of Lazio (the “TAR Lazio”) in 2017,[1] which reduced by 60% the amount of the fines imposed by the Italian Competition Authority (the “ICA”)[2] in 2015 on three firms operating in the area of Belluno, in the Veneto Region (namely, Superbeton S.p.A., F.lli Romor S.r.l. and F.lli De Pra S.p.A., together the “Companies”). In contrast, the Council of State dismissed the cross-appeals submitted by the Companies that aimed to challenge the ICA’s finding of infringement.[3]

On July 16, 2020, the French Competition Authority (“FCA”) imposed a €93 million fine on 12 manufacturers for their participation in a cartel in the ham and cold meat sector.[1] The FCA started its investigation in 2012, following a complaint from a slaughterhouse and a leniency application by Campofrio, a cold meat manufacturer. The FCA subsequently conducted dawn raids at the 12 cold meat manufacturers’ premises in 2013.

On June 4, 2020, AG Kokott advised the Court of Justice to confirm the General Court’s judgment upholding the Commission’s decision of June 19, 2013 (“the Opinion”). The aforementioned decision imposed fines of €146 million on Lundbeck and five other generic drug manufacturers (“generics”) for patent settlement agreements that prevented the sale of rival versions of Lundbeck’s antidepressant drug citalopram.[1]

On May 26, 2020, the Paris Court of Appeals confirmed the €0.9 million fine imposed on Akka Group for obstructing dawn raids conducted on its premises, including by breaking seals. This was the second decision issued by the FCA for dawn raid obstruction and the first one for breaking seals.

On May 19, 2020, the Federal Court of Justice (“FCJ”) overturned a judgment of the Munich Court of Appeal in one of the numerous cartel follow-on damages actions brought against members of the so-called Rail Cartel (“Schienenkartell”), this time by the Munich Transportation Authority.[1]  The FCJ once more confirmed its decisional practice in the case of quota and customer protection cartels, according to which there can be no prima facie evidence that damages were incurred and/or whether individual purchase orders were affected by the cartel.[2]  The decision had to be reversed, for the Munich Court of Appeal had based its decision on such prima facie evidence.  Of particular interest is the FCJ’s reasoning on two other issues:

On May 18, 2020,[1] the TAR Lazio rejected the applications for annulment of the ICA decision of February 13, 2019, brought by Airgreen S.r.l., Star Work Sky S.a.s., Elitellina S.r.l., Elifriulia S.r.l., Babcock Mission Critical Services Italia Sau, Heliwest S.r.l., Eliossola S.r.l. and the Italian Helicopter Association. By the said decision, the applicants were fined in a total amount of approx. €67,000,000 for anticompetitive conduct infringing Article 101 TFEU with regard to the award of contracts for forest fire-fighting activities.[2]