Memo: Competition: Commission welcomes Court of First Instance judgment in the “Lombard Club” case

The European Commission welcomes the 14 December 2006 judgment by the European Court of First Instance dismissing the action by eight Austrian banks to set aside the Commission's June 2002 decision against a cartel of eight Austrian banks, the so-called "Lombard Club" (cases T-259/02 to T-264/02 and T-271/02). The CFI notably confirmed that the cartel belonged to the worst category of illegal pricing fixing agreements. The CFI emphasised that one of the aggravating circumstances in setting the fines was that the far reaching cartel occurred in the banking sector which is of key importance for the economy of an entire country, in this case Austria. The CFI reduced the total fines of €124,260,000 by a €3,795,000 for lack of evidence regarding the market share of one bank. The new total is €120,465,000 so that 97% of the original fines have been maintained.