Judgment_paragraph 318 · Archer Daniels Midland Company and Archer Daniels Midland Ingredients Ltd v Commission of the European Communities (T-224/00)

318They claim that, in the statement of objections (documents 4187 to 4240 of the annex to the statement of objections), the Commission relied on statements which a participant in the cartel made to an American court in the case of USA vs. Andreas and Others. However, according to settled case-law (Case C-60/92 Otto [1993] ECR I-5683, paragraph 20), information obtained in the course of national proceedings cannot be used by the Commission to establish an infringement of the competition rules. Furthermore, the statements in question have no probative force in American law as they were made at a preliminary stage in the context of the public prosecutor's address to the court.