Judgment_paragraph 26 · Schindler Holding Ltd and Others v European Commission (C-501/11 P)

26The appellants further submit that the case-law cited by the General Court, in particular Joined Cases 209/78 to 215/78 and 218/78 van Landewyck and Others v Commission [1980] ECR 3125, paragraph 81, and Joined Cases 100/80 to 103/80 Musique Diffusion française and Others v Commission [1983] ECR 1825, paragraph 7, the judgments in which state that the Commission cannot be described as a tribunal within the meaning of Article 6 of the ECHR, is obsolete because of the entry into force of the Treaty of Lisbon and the direct applicability of the ECHR. According to the appellants, the penalty should have been imposed by a tribunal and not by an administrative authority such as the Commission. They contend in this regard that, because of the scale of the penalties, it is not possible to apply in the present instance the case-law of the European Court of Human Rights resulting from its judgments in Öztürk v. Germany, 21 February 1984, Series A no. 73 and Bendenoun v. France, 24 February 1994, Series A no. 284, which states that, in particular in the case of a large number of infringements – which constitutes ‘mass offending’ according to the appellants – or of minor infringements that must be prosecuted, a penalty may be imposed by an administrative authority if full judicial review can be guaranteed.