Memo: Competition: Commission welcomes Court of Justice judgment in specialty graphite cartel case

The European Commission welcomes the 10 May 2007 judgment by the European Court of Justice (case C-328/05) dismissing the action by the German specialty graphite producer SGL Carbon AG against the judgment of the European Court of First Instance of 15 June 2005 (case T-91/03). In this latter judgement, the Court of First Instance had dismissed most of the action brought by SGL against the Commission decision of 17 December 2002 setting fines on the company (although the Court of First Instance also reduced in part the amount of SGL's fine). The Court of Justice has now confirmed the original findings of the Court of First Instance, and dismissed the appeal in its entirety. Following today's judgment, 83.7% of the fines imposed by the Commission in the original decision have now been definitively upheld.