Judgment of the General Court of 26 June 2014 — Quimitécnica.com and de Mello v European Commission

(Case T-564/10) (1)

((Competition - Agreements, decisions and concerted practices - European market in animal feed phosphates - Fines - Payment in instalments - Commission decision requiring a bank guarantee to be set up - Obligation to state reasons - Proportionality))

2014/C 261/43

Language of the case: Portuguese

Parties

Applicants: Quimitécnica.com — Comércio e Indústria Química, SA (Lordelo, Portugal); and José de Mello — Sociedade Gestora de Participações Sociais, SA (Lisbon, Portugal) (represented by: J. Calheiros and A. de Albuquerque, lawyers)

Defendant: European Commission (represented by: B. Mongin, V. Bottka and F. Ronkes Agerbeek, Agents, assisted by M. Marques Mendes, lawyer)

Re:

Application for the annulment in part of the decision allegedly set out in the letter from the Commission’s accounting officer of 8 October 2010 concerning payment of the fine imposed on the applicants under Commission Decision C (2010) 5004 final of 20 July 2010 relating to a proceeding pursuant to Article 101 TFEU and Article 53 of the EEA Agreement (Case COMP/38.886 — Animal feed phosphates), in so far as that letter requires the applicants to provide a bank guarantee from a bank that has received a long-term ‘AA’ credit rating in order for the application to pay in instalments to be granted.

Operative part of the judgment

The Court:

(1)  OJ C 55, 19.2.2011.