Court of Justice of the European Communities (including Court of First Instance Decisions)

Order of the Court (First Chamber) of 11 September 2008 -“ Coats Holdings and Coats v Commission

(Case C-‘468/07 P)

Appeals -“ Article 119 of the Rules of Procedure -“ Competition -“ Agreements, decisions and concerted practices -“ Fine -“ Claim seeking reduction of the fine set by the Court of First Instance

1. Appeals -“ Jurisdiction of the Court -“ Whether it may review, on grounds of fairness, the appraisal at first instance of the amount of a fine imposed on an undertaking -“ Excluded (Art. 81 EC; Statute of the Court of Justice, Art. 56; Council Regulation No 1/2003, Art. 23) (see paras 23-24)

2. Competition -“ Fines -“ Amount -“ Determination -“ Legal context -“ Guidelines on the method of setting fines for infringements of the competition rules -“ Included (Council Regulation No 1/2003, Art. 23; Commission Notice 98/C 9/03) (see para. 28)

Re:

Appeal against the judgment delivered by the Second Chamber of the Court of First Instance on 12 September 2007 in Case T-‘36/05

Coats Holdings and Coats

v

Commission

by which that Court partly annulled Commission Decision C(2004) 4221 final of 26 October 2004 relating to a proceeding under Article 81 EC (Case COMP/F-1/38.338 -“ PO/Needles) concerning market-sharing agreements in respect of haberdashery products and geographic market-‘sharing agreements, and set the amount of the fine imposed on the applicants at EUR 20 million -“ Application for the fine to be reduced.

Operative part

The Court:

1.

Dismisses the appeal;

2.

Orders Coats Holdings Ltd and J & P Coats Ltd to pay the costs.