Judgment_paragraph 55 · Guardian Industries Corp. and Guardian Europe Sàrl v European Commission (C-580/12 P)

55It is apparent from the case-law of the Court that, although Article 23(2) of Regulation No 1/2003 leaves the Commission a discretion, it nevertheless limits the exercise of that discretion by establishing objective criteria to which the Commission must adhere. Thus, first, the amount of the fine that may be imposed on an undertaking is subject to a quantifiable and absolute ceiling, with the result that the maximum amount of the fine that can be imposed on a given undertaking can be determined in advance. Secondly, the exercise of that discretion is also limited by rules of conduct which the Commission imposed on itself, in particular in the 2006 Guidelines (see, to that effect, Schindler Holding and Others v Commission, C‑501/11 P, EU:C:2013:522, paragraph 58).