Judgment_paragraph 45 · Esso Société anonyme française and Others v European Commission (T-540/08)

45In addition, it should be noted since the prohibition on participating in anti-competitive practices and agreements and the penalties which offenders may incur are well known, it is normal for the activities which those practices and those agreements entail to take place clandestinely, for meetings to be held in secret and for the associated documentation to be reduced to a minimum. The Commission cannot therefore be required to produce documents expressly attesting to contacts between the traders concerned. Even if the Commission discovers such evidence, it will normally be only fragmentary and sparse, so that it is often necessary to reconstitute certain details by deduction (Joined Cases C-204/00 P, C-205/00 P, C-211/00 P, C-213/00 P, C-217/00 P and C-219/00 P Aalborg Portland and Others v Commission [2004] ECR I-123, paragraphs 55 to 57; see also Joined Cases T‑44/02 OP, T‑54/02 OP, T‑56/02 OP, T‑60/02 OP and T-61/02 OP Dresdner Bank and Others v Commission [2006] ECR II-3567, paragraphs 64 and 65).

Esso Société anonyme française and Others v European Commission (T-540/08)

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