Supreme Court overturns €20 and €10 million sanctions imposed by the CNMC in 2015 for reaching commercial agreements
Repsol and Cepsa will not have to pay two fines of 30 million euros imposed by the National Commission for Markets and Competition (CNMC) for agreeing prices for not meeting the deadlines. This was ruled by the Supreme Court, which annulled two sanctions of 20 and 10 million euros, imposed in 2015, before the procedure expired.
In the verdicts, dated July 5, the controversial administrative chamber cancels both sanctions, due to the fact that the CNMC exceeded the 18-month period provided for in the Competition Defense Act to complete the procedure once the initiation and attention to the resources of both companies.
The sanction was prompted by the agreement of prices by both companies. In 2015, the CNMC fined them on the understanding that between 2011 and 2013, they reached coordination agreements, non-aggression pacts and exchanges of strategic information between gas stations.
Now that the deadline has passed, the Supreme says, there is no need to go into the two companies’ remaining arguments against the CNMC’s agreements and arguments.
What the Supreme Court has established is that in cases of suspension of the sanctions procedure by sending information to the European Commission, the calculation of the term starts from the date of the suspension agreement and ends when the suspension is lifted.
And it adds that the elapsed time is added to the initially established term to establish the maximum term to resolve the proceedings and not expire. “Once the proceedings have expired, the Supreme Court will not, as it is not necessary, address the remaining arguments of the two companies against the agreements and the Commission’s arguments,” the court said in a statement published this week. . Wednesday.
The Supreme Court rulings also nullify the rulings previously made by the Supreme National Court that ruled that the Commission’s proceedings were not over, although they partially estimated Repsol’s and Cepsa’s resources at the amount of the sanctions, as they should take into account the turnover of 2014 and not that of 2013 when calculating it.
Source: La Verdad
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