Judgment_paragraph 34 · Kish Glass & Co. Ltd v Commission of the European Communities (T-65/96)

34Since the right of access to the file is also one of the procedural guarantees intended to safeguard the right to be heard, the Court of First Instance has held, similarly, that the principle that there must be full disclosure in the administrative procedure before the Commission in matters concerning the competition rules applicable to undertakings applies only to undertakings which may be penalised by a Commission decision finding an infringement of Articles 85 or 86 of the EC Treaty (now Articles 81 EC and 82 EC), since the rights of third parties, as laid down by Article 19 of Regulation No 17, are limited to the right to participate in the administrative procedure. In particular, third parties cannot claim to have a right of access to the file held by the Commission on the same basis as the undertakings under investigation (judgment in Matra Hachette v Commission, cited above, paragraph 34).