Judgment_paragraph 84 · Fiatagri UK Ltd and New Holland Ford Ltd v Commission of the European Communities (T-34/92)

84The applicants also claim that the information exchange agreements to which the Commission has objected concerned exchanges of information on either prices or homogeneous products. Only one Commission decision concerned an exchange of information concerning durable goods, precisely a case concerning tractors. It was Decision 83/3 61/EEC of 13 July 1983 relating to a proceeding under Article 85 of the EEC Treaty (IV/30.174 — Vimpoltn, OJ 1983 L 200, p. 44). However, in that case, the behaviour of the traders who had exchanged price information resembled that of the members of a cartel. Furthermore, the Commission cannot rely on its Decision 87/69/EEC of 15 December 1986 relating to a proceeding under Article 85 of the EEC Treaty (IV/31.458 — X/Open Group, OJ 1987 L 35, p. 36) in which it gave a wide definition of the potential effects on competition arising from the exchange of information, which went beyond that accepted by the Court of Justice, and in which it granted an exemption for the information exchange. The Court of Justice has never been called on to consider a case which concerns exclusively exchanges of information. The Commission's statement that the question whether the relevant product is a homogeneous product or, on the contrary, a differentiated product is irrelevant, directly contradicts economic theory. It must therefore be concluded from that that the other aspects of that Decision are not relevant in this case. In summary, the applicants claim that not only is the Decision not supported by any precedent but also that the examination in their context of cases which have been the subject of a decision directly contradicts the approach adopted in the present case.

Fiatagri UK Ltd and New Holland Ford Ltd v Commission of the European Communities (T-34/92)

Key facts

History · 1 version

Connections