Judgment_paragraph 40 · Conseil national de l’Ordre des pharmaciens (CNOP) and Conseil central de la section G de l’Ordre national des pharmaciens (CCG) v European Commission (T-23/09)

40In that regard, so far as concerns the nature of the contested decision and the context in which it was adopted, even though the applicants are right in asserting that, under the case-law, the protection of private life provided for in Article 8 of the ECHR must be respected and the protection of the home is extended to the premises of commercial companies (see, to that effect, Eur. Court HR, Société Colas Est and Others v. France, no. 37971/97, judgment of 16 April 2002, § 41; see also, concerning Regulation No 17 of the Council of 6 February 1962, First Regulation implementing Articles [81 EC] and [82 EC] (OJ, English Special Edition 1959-1962, p. 87); Roquette Frères, paragraph 28 above, paragraph 27; and order of 17 November 2005 in Case C-121/04 P Minoan Lines v Commission, not published in the ECR, paragraph 31), the Court of Justice has also pointed out that it is important to safeguard the effectiveness of inspections as a necessary instrument to enable the Commission to exercise its functions as guardian of the Treaties in the area of competition. Thus, in order to safeguard the usefulness of the Commission’s right of access to the commercial premises of the undertaking subject to a procedure implementing Articles 81 EC and 82 EC, that right implies the power to search for various items of information which are not already known or fully identified (see, with regard to Regulation No 17, Joined Cases 46/87 and 227/88 Hoechst v Commission [1989] ECR I-2859, paragraph 27, and order in Minoan Lines v Commission, paragraph 36).

Conseil national de l’Ordre des pharmaciens (CNOP) and Conseil central de la section G de l’Ordre national des pharmaciens (CCG) v European Commission (T-23/09)

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