Focus Antitrust - 5 March 2014

IN THE NEWS

ECJ rules on access to documents in gas insulated switchgear cartel

The ECJ has delivered its judgment on the European Commission's appeal against the General Court's annulment of a Commission decision refusing to grant EnBW access to documents relating to the gas insulated switchgear cartel investigation. The ECJ has set aside the General Court's judgment, having found that the General Court had wrongly considered that the Commission was not entitled to rely on general presumptions about the application of the exceptions to disclosure in Article 4 of Regulation 1049/2001. Rather, the ECJ held that the Commission can presume that disclosure of such documents will weaken the protection of the commercial interests of the undertakings involved in the proceedings. This general presumption can be rebutted by demonstrating that a specific requested document is not covered by the presumption, or that there is an overriding public interest in disclosure of the