Judgment_paragraph 45 · Slovak Telekom a.s. v European Commission (T-458/09, T-171/10)

45In the light of the wording and purpose of Article 18(1) of Regulation No 1/2003, and in accordance with the case-law set out in paragraphs 41 to 44 above, it must be found that the powers of investigation provided for in that provision are subject only to the requirement that the information requested be necessary, which it is for the Commission to evaluate, in order to assess the putative infringements justifying the undertaking of the investigation and, in particular, in the present case, to detect any abuse of a dominant position prohibited by Article 82 EC and Article 102 TFEU. Thus, any interpretation of Article 18(1) of Regulation No 1/2003 which amounts to prohibiting the Commission, as a matter of principle, from requesting from an undertaking information relating to a period during which the competition rules of the European Union did not apply, even though such information is necessary for the detection of a possible infringement of those rules from the point at which they become applicable, would risk depriving that provision of its effectiveness and would go against the Commission’s duty to examine carefully and impartially all the relevant evidence in the case under investigation (Case C-269/90 Technische Universität München [1991] ECR I-5469, paragraph 14; Case T-44/90 La Cinq v Commission [1992] ECR II-1, paragraph 86; and Joined Cases T-191/98, T-212/98 to T-214/98 Atlantic Container Line and Others v Commission [2003] ECR II-3275, paragraph 404).

Slovak Telekom a.s. v European Commission (T-458/09, T-171/10)

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