Access to File under European Competition Law

Abstract

The present survey focuses on recent judgments that address the right of damage claimants to access the European Commission's (the ‘Commission’) file in antitrust cases and the type of information the Commission may include in the public version of its cartel decisions. In the cement cartel case,1 the Court of Justice overturned a General Court judgment that had found a Commission request for information as compatible with EU competition law despite the fact that the Commission request for information contained an ‘excessively succinct, vague and generic’ statement of reasons and despite the fact that the requested information expanded beyond the scope of the Commission's investigation. The Court of Justice reminded the Commission of its obligation to state the reasons for its requests for information, and it remains to be seen to what extent this will impact not only the form but also the scope of the Commission's investigatory measures in antitrust investigations in the future.