Competition - Cartel - Lysine - Guidelines on the method of setting fines - Applicability - Gravity of the infringement - Turnover - Concurrent sanctions.

«(Competition – Cartel – Lysine – Guidelines on the method of setting fines – Applicability – Gravity of the infringement – Turnover – Concurrent sanctions)» Summary of the Judgment 1.. Community law – Principles – Protection of legitimate expectations – Conditions – Protection against exercise by the Commission of its power to raise the level of fines penalising infringements of the competition rules – None (Council Regulation No 17) 2.. Competition – Fines – Amount – Determination thereof – Guidelines adopted by the Commission – Obligation on the Commission to comply with them (Council Regulation No 17, Art. 15(2)) 3.. Competition – Fines – Amount – Determination thereof – Criteria – Seriousness of the infringements – Taking into account of the total turnover of the undertaking concerned and the turnover achieved by sales of goods which were the subject-matter of the infringement – Limits (Council Regulation No 17, Art. 15(2)) 4.. Competition – Fines – Amount – Determination thereof – Criteria – Seriousness of the infringements – Measure of the effective capacity to cause damage on the relevant market – Relevance of the market share held by the undertaking concerned (Art. 81(1) EC; Council Regulation No 17, Art. 15(2)) 5.. Competition – Fines – Amount – Determination thereof – Criteria – Seriousness of the infringements – Measure of the actual impact on competition of the infringing conduct of each undertaking – Relevance of the turnover achieved with the products forming the subject-matter of a restrictive practice (Art. 81(1) EC; Council Regulation No 17, Art. 15(2)) 6.. Competition – Fines – Amount – Community penalties and penalties imposed by the authorities of a Member State or a non-member State for infringement of national competition law – Infringement of thenon bis in idemprinciple – None – Concurrent sanctions – Permissible – Obligation on the Commission to take account, when determining the amount of the fine, of the penalty imposed by a Member State on the basis of the same facts – Obligation not transposable to the hypothesis of a penalty imposed in a non-member State (Protocol No 7 to the European Convention on Human Rights, Art. 4; Council Regulation No 17, Art. 15) JUDGMENT OF THE COURT OF FIRST INSTANCE (Fourth Chamber)9 July 2003 (1) ((Competition – Cartel – Lysine – Guidelines on the method of setting fines – Applicability – Gravity of the infringement – Turnover – Concurrent sanctions)) applicants, v defendant, THE COURT OF FIRST INSTANCE OF THE EUROPEAN COMMUNITIES (Fourth Chamber), having regard to the written procedure and further to the hearing on 24 April 2002, gives the following On those grounds, THE COURT OF FIRST INSTANCE (Fourth Chamber) Vilaras Tiili Mengozzi H. Jung M. Vilaras Registrar President 1 – Language of the case: English.