Judgment_paragraph 43 · Cementos Portland Valderrivas, SA v European Commission (T-296/11)

43The assessment of the reasonableness of the grounds must be carried out having regard to the fact that the contested decision forms part of the preliminary investigation stage, which is intended to enable the Commission to gather all the relevant information tending to prove or disprove the existence of an infringement of the competition rules and to adopt an initial position on the course of the procedure and how it is to proceed. In order to perform that task, the Commission is entitled to send requests for information pursuant to Article 18 of Regulation No 1/2003 or to have recourse to inspections under Article 20 thereof. Accordingly, at that stage — before the adoption of a decision requesting information — the Commission cannot be required to be in possession of evidence establishing the existence of an infringement. It is therefore enough for such evidence to give rise to a reasonable suspicion as to the commission of putative infringements in order for the Commission to be entitled to request the provision of additional information by way of a decision adopted under Article 18(3) of Regulation No 1/2003.

Cementos Portland Valderrivas, SA v European Commission (T-296/11)

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