148As a fourth point, the applicant alleges that the Commission failed to take into account Wendel’s lack of experience in the publishing sector. However, it is expressly clear from paragraph 10(b) of the commitments that the purchaser of assets sold could be chosen from the financial buyers, as was confirmed by the General Court (judgment in Case T‑279/04, paragraph 15 above, EU:T:2010:384, paragraphs 344 and 345) and the Court of Justice (judgment in Case C‑551/10 P, paragraph 23 above, EU:C:2012:681, paragraph 78) in examining the lawfulness of the conditional clearance decision of 7 January 2004. Furthermore, the applicant’s argument has no factual basis because, in paragraph 30 of the contested decision, the Commission expressly examined whether Wendel was an operator capable of maintaining and developing effective competition despite its lack of experience in the publishing sector. It thus pointed out that Editis still had all the necessary managerial, editorial and support resources such that it could ensure its own viability and that Wendel had undertaken to retain those resources. It should be noted in this regard that Lagardère undertook, in paragraph 12(b) of its commitments, not to recruit any of the members of the executive board of Editis or the main senior publishing staff of the assets sold for a certain period.
Source: EUR-Lex, © European Union, 1998-2026. Reuse authorised under Decision 2011/833/EU.