The Supreme Court clarifies the criteria to calculate fines for antitrust infringements
27 February 2015
- The judgment rejects the Communication's method of setting fines for contravening the principle of proportionality, and calls on the legislator to modify the SCA in order to make the setting of fines more predictable.
- Until the SCA is amended, fines will be set exclusively on the basis of Articles 63 and 64 SCA and in light of the principle of proportionality.
- The 10 % of the total turnover does not constitute a "corrective threshold", but the maximum value in the range of fines within which to set a fine for very serious infringement.
- Such total turnover must encompass the turnover generated by all economic activities of the infringing company, and not exclusively the turnover generated in the specific activity affected by the infringement
- Even though it admits that the Communication led to a disproportionate level of fines, the judgment reduces legal certainty in relation to the setting of fines.
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Clifford Chance
