Judgment_paragraph 61 · European Commission v Deutsche Telekom AG (C-221/22 P)

61As regards the fact, highlighted by the Commission, that the interest which the General Court ordered it to pay in the judgment under appeal relates to the period from the date of provisional payment of the fine until the date of repayment of the amount unduly collected following the judgment reducing that fine and that it thus concerns a period which largely predates that judgment, this is the consequence of the ex tunc effect of such a judgment and of the Commission’s obligation, arising from the first paragraph of Article 266 TFEU, to comply with that judgment by placing the undertaking concerned in the situation in which it would have been had it not been deprived, throughout that period, of the benefit of the sum corresponding to the amount unduly collected. In that regard, it is common ground, in view of the right of action available against any Commission decision imposing a fine, that, where the fine has been paid provisionally by the undertaking concerned, the Commission may, where appropriate, be required to take the measures to comply with a judgment annulling such a decision in whole or in part, as set out in paragraphs 51 to 53 above.