Yearbook of Antitrust and Regulatory Studies (Aug 2012)
EU Courts’ Jurisdiction over and Review of Decisions Imposing Fines in EU Competition Law
Abstract
The aim of this article is to analyse the extent of judicial review exercised by the EU courts over the European Commission’s decision imposing fines in EU competition law. When considering appeals against fines in competition law, the position of the EU courts are limited to a review of imposed fines in respect of the European Commission’s Guidelines instead of an exercise of a more comprehensive appellate review. The review should not only be a control of legality but it has to be an unlimited merits control. An appeal control should be directed to review fully the facts and to control proportionality of the imposed fines. The article analyses also the question of the protection of fundamental rights in the scope of the review over decisions imposing fines. For that purpose, the article provides also a comparative analysis of the selected judgments of the EU courts and the European Court of Human Rights.
