Judgment_paragraph 170 · DaimlerChrysler AG v Commission of the European Communities (T-325/01)

170As a preliminary point, it argues that in the present case the Commission disregarded its practice relating to the imposition of fines on a company or the group to which it belongs. The Commission ought to have taken into account a number of factors, namely the extent of the subsidiary's decision-making autonomy, the degree to which the parent company was aware of the activities of the subsidiary that contravened the law relating to concerted practices, the participation of that company in the infringement, the actual influence of the parent company on the subsidiary's trading policy and the extent to which membership of the company organs of the parent company and its subsidiary overlapped (see Commission Decision 87/1/EEC of 2 December 1986 relating to a proceeding under Article [81] of the EEC Treaty (IV/31.128 — Fatty acids) (OJ 1987 L 3, p. 17); Commission Decision 86/398/EEC of 23 April 1986 relating to a proceeding under Article [81] of the EEC Treaty (IV/31.149 — Polypropylene) (OJ 1986 L 230, p. 1); Commission Decision 85/617/EEC of 16 December 1985 relating to a proceeding pursuant to Article [81] of the EEC Treaty (IV/30.839 - Sperry New Holland) (OJ 1985 L 376, p. 21); Commission Decision 84/388/EEC of 23 July 1984 relating to a proceeding under Article [81] of the EEC Treaty (IV/30.988 — Agreements and concerted practices in the flat-glass sector in the Benelux countries) (OJ 1984 L 212, p. 13); and Commission Decision 78/155/EEC of 23 December 1977 relating to a proceeding under Article [81] of the EEC Treaty (IV/29.146 — BMW Belgium NV and Belgian BMW dealers) (OJ 1978 L 46, p. 33)). In the motor vehicle sector, the national sales subsidiaries concerned were treated as being responsible where the infringement could be localised in the corresponding Member State (Commission Decision 2001/146/EC of 20 September 2000 relating to a proceeding under Article 81 of the EC Treaty (Case COMP/36.653 - Opel) (OJ 2001 L 59, p. 1)).