Judgment_paragraph 28 · Volkswagen AG v Commission of the European Communities (C-338/00 P)

28The Court of First Instance held inter alia as follows:297 The statement of reasons for the contested decision showed, in conformity with the requirements of Article 190 of the EC Treaty (now Article 253 EC), clearly and unequivocally the Commission's reasoning and so enabled the applicant to ascertain the reasons for that decision in order to defend its rights, and the Court to review the correctness of the decision (Case C-278/95 P Siemens v Commission [1997] ECR I-2507, paragraph 17; Case T-150/89 Martinelli v Commission [1995] ECR II-1165, paragraph 65; and [Case T-229/94] Deutsche Bahn v Commission [[1997] ECR II-1689], paragraph 96).298 It is clearly explained in the contested decision, with regard to the various types of conduct complained of, why the Commission considered that the applicant had infringed Article 85(1) of the Treaty. The Commission's analyses have enabled the Court to exercise its power of review. By the same token, both in its application and during the proceedings, the applicant has replied to the arguments set out by the Commission in the decision in relation to the finding of an infringement, which shows that the decision supplied it with the necessary information to enable it to defend its rights.299 Moreover, in the decision and, more specifically, in recitals 194 to 201 thereof, the Commission, as stated in paragraph 27 above, expressly replied to certain observations submitted by the applicant and Audi in response to the statement of objections. It should be added here that the Commission did not have to reply to the applicant's detailed objections, such as those submitted in regard to its margin policy. All that was required of the Commission was to explain clearly and unequivocally, as it did in recitals 62 to 66 of the decision, why it took the view that a split margin system had been instituted (see Siemens v Commission, cited above, paragraphs 17 and 18). Likewise, the Commission gave adequate reasons for its analysis of the documents obtained by amply explaining the grounds on which it considered that those documents were of such a nature as to prove the existence of the alleged infringement, but without replying point-by-point to the different interpretations submitted by the applicant in its reply to the statement of objections’