357First of all, the Court must reject the argument which the applicants derive from the Commission’s previous practice in adopting decisions, according to which the absence of clear precedents establishing the unlawful nature of particular conduct might justify not imposing a fine. It should be observed in that regard that the Commission’s decision not to impose a fine in certain decisions on account of the relative novelty of the infringements found does not grant ‘immunity’ to undertakings subsequently committing the same type of infringement. The Commission exercises its discretion in the specific context of each case when assessing whether it is appropriate to impose a fine in order to penalise the infringement found and to protect the effectiveness of competition law (Joined Cases T-213/95 and T-18/96 SCK and FNK v Commission [1997] ECR II-1739, paragraph 239).
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