Memo: Competition: Commission welcomes Court of Justice ruling in Danone case, confirming higher fines for repeat offenders

The European Commission welcomes the judgment by the European Court of Justice (Case C-3/06 P) dismissing in its entirety the appeal by Danone against the judgment of the Court of First Instance (CFI) of October 2005 and confirming that repeat offences by companies, even when many years in the past, should be taken into account when setting fines in competition cases. The original case concerned cartels operated on the Belgian beer market between 1993 and 1998. The Court upheld the fine of €42 412 500 as set by the CFI. This means that over 96 % of the Commission's fine on Danone and 97% of the Commission's fines on all cartel participants remain.