129The appellant fails to show how the use of that reference year breached the principle of equal treatment or that of proportionality. On the contrary, the use of a reference year common to all the undertakings involved in the same infringement means that each undertaking is assured of being treated in the same way as the others since the penalties are determined in a uniform manner without taking account of extrinsic and uncertain factors which might have affected the turnover between the last year of the infringement and the time when the decision imposing the fines is adopted. Moreover, the fact that the reference year was part of the infringement period enabled the scale of the infringement committed to be assessed in the light of the economic reality as it appeared during that period.
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