35In accordance with settled case-law, in adopting such guidelines and announcing, by publishing them, that they will apply to the cases to which they relate, the Commission imposes a limit on the exercise of that discretion and cannot, as a general rule, depart from those guidelines, at the risk of being found to be in breach of general principles of law, such as equal treatment or the protection of legitimate expectations (judgments of 2 December 2010, Holland Malt v Commission, C‑464/09 P, EU:C:2010:733, paragraph 46, and of 3 September 2020, Vereniging tot Behoud van Natuurmonumenten in Nederland and Others v Commission, C‑817/18 P, EU:C:2020:637, paragraph 100 and the case-law cited).
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