40However, according to the case-law, the fact that the parent company of a group which exercises decisive influence over its subsidiaries can be held jointly and severally liable for their infringements of competition law does not in any way constitute an exception to the principle of personal responsibility, but is the expression of that very principle, since the parent company and the subsidiaries under its decisive influence are collectively a single undertaking for the purposes of EU competition law and responsible for that undertaking and, if that undertaking intentionally or negligently infringes the competition rules, that gives rise to the collective personal responsibility of all the principals in the group structure (see Akzo Nobel and Others v Commission, paragraph 26 above, paragraph 77 and the case-law cited). Thus, the principle of personal responsibility is recognised by the case-law (Case C-49/92 P Commission v Anic Partecipazioni [1999] ECR I-4125, paragraph 145; Case C-279/98 P Cascades v Commission [2000] ECR I-9693, paragraph 78; and Case C-280/06 ETI and Others [2007] ECR I-10893, paragraph 39), but it applies to undertakings rather than companies. This complaint must therefore also be rejected.
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