Judgment_paragraph 3 · JFE Engineering Corp., formerly NKK Corp., Nippon Steel Corp., JFE Steel Corp. and Sumitomo Metal Industries Ltd v Commission of the European Communities (T-67/00, T-68/00, T-71/00, T-78/00)

3By decision of 17 November 1994, the Surveillance Authority of the European Free Trade Association (EFTA), acting pursuant to Article 8(3) of Protocol 23 to the Agreement on the European Economic Area, approved by Decision 94/1/ECSC, EC of the Council and the Commission of 13 December 1993 on the conclusion of the Agreement on the European Economic Area between the European Communities, their Member States and the Republic of Austria, the Republic of Finland, the Republic of Iceland, the Principality of Liechtenstein, the Kingdom of Norway, the Kingdom of Sweden and the Swiss Confederation (OJ 1994 L 1, p. 1; ‘the EEA Agreement’), authorised the member responsible for competition matters to invite the Commission to carry out an investigation, within the Community, into possible anticompetitive practices concerning carbon-steel tubes used for drilling and transport operations in the Norwegian oil industry.