General Court reduces fine imposed on Panasonic for CRT cartel

10/09/15

In a judgment delivered on 9 September 2015 in Case T-82/13, Panasonic Corp v Commission, the General Court has reduced the fine imposed on Panasonic for its participation in a cartel on the European market for cathode ray tubes (“CRTs”).

CRTs are components that were essential to the manufacture of television sets and computer screens, prior to the advent of flat screen technology.  In a Decision of 5 December 2012 (C(2012) 8839 final), the Commission found that seven global producers of CRTs had participated in cartels on the markets for the sale of CRTs for televisions (colour picture tubes, or “CPTs”) and for computer screens (colour display tubes, or “CDTs”).  Panasonic was only found to have been involved in the CPT cartel.  In its Decision, the Commission imposed fines totalling almost €1.5 billion: these combined fines were at the time the highest aggregate cartel fine ever imposed by the Commission.

Panasonic appealed against the Commission’s Decision in relation to both liability and penalty. 

In its challenge on liability, Panasonic argued (in summary) that the process followed by the Commission infringed Panasonic’s rights of defence and that the Commission had not proved that there was a single and continuous infringement covering Europe and/or that Panasonic was ever a party to any such single and continuous infringement.  The General Court rejected the liability aspects of Panasonic’s appeal.

In its challenge on penalty, Panasonic’s principal argument was that the Commission had used an inappropriate methodology for calculating the value of Panasonic’s direct EEA sales of CPTs through transformed products.  The General Court upheld this aspect of Panasonic’s appeal, finding that the Commission’s methodology departed from its 2006 Guidelines on the setting of fines by failing to use the data that most accurately reflected the value of Panasonic’s EEA sales through transformed products.  The result was that the fine imposed on Panasonic was reduced by approximately €30 million.

The judgment is here.

Judgment