Judgment_paragraph 117 · Groupe Danone v Commission of the European Communities (T-38/02)

117Although those two principles are referred to in the contested decision, the Commission did not observe them. While Interbrew's turnover for sales on the market during the period in question was four times higher than the applicant's, the specific starting amount determined for Interbrew was less than twice as high as that applied to the applicant. Such a lack of proportionality is contrary to the Commission's recent practice, as illustrated by its Decision 2003/674/EC of 2 July 2002 relating to a proceeding under Article 81 of the EC Treaty and Article 53 of the EEA Agreement (Case C.37.519 — Methionine) (OJ 2003 L 255, p. 1) (‘the Methionine Decision’), in which it took the view that the difference between the fines imposed should reflect the imbalance between the market share of the leading producer on the market worldwide and one of its competitors having a market share that was five times smaller.

Groupe Danone v Commission of the European Communities (T-38/02)

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