Competition litigation before the General Court: Quality if not quantity?

Abstract

This article explores the extent of the review exercised by the General Court of the European Union in the field of competition litigation and underlines its intensification in three directions: the assessment of the legality of the Commission’s decisions, the exercise of its unlimited jurisdiction in relation to fines and penalty payments, as well as the control of the Commission’s use of its investigatory powers. It is also observed that this more in-depth review takes place in the context of a drop in the number of applications for annulment lodged before the General Court in competition cases, due notably to the success of the commitments procedure introduced by Article 9 of Regulation 1/2003 as well as the limitations set by the case law of the Court of Justice on the review the General Court may exercise over the decisions resulting from this procedure.