Judgment_paragraph 25 · Guardian Industries Corp. and Guardian Europe Sàrl v European Commission (C-580/12 P)

25Guardian submits that the principle of the equality of arms and the principle audi alteram partem require the hearing to be restricted to information in the case-file which has been the subject of written debate. The mere fact that a party may make submissions at the hearing in relation to documents submitted out of time does not mean that the rights of the defence have been observed. In accordance with its own relevant case-law, the General Court ought to have declared the letter of 10 February 2012 inadmissible (Solvay v Commission, T‑30/91, EU:T:1995:115, paragraphs 83 and 101; BASF v Commission, T‑175/95, EU:T:1999:99, paragraph 46; and AstraZeneca v Commission, T‑321/05, EU:T:2010:266, paragraph 27).