Judgment of the Court (Third Chamber) of 10 September 2009 — Akzo Nobel NV, Akzo Nobel Nederland BV, Akzo Nobel Chemicals International BV, Akzo Nobel Chemicals BV, Akzo Nobel Functional Chemicals BV v Commission of the European Communities

(Case C-97/08 P) (1)

(Appeal - Competition - Agreements, decisions and concerted practices - Article 81(1) EC - Article 53(1) of the EEA Agreement - Article 23(2) of Regulation (EC) No 1/2003 - Groups of undertakings - Imputability of infringements - Responsibility of a parent company for the infringement of competition rules by its subsidiaries - Decisive influence exercised by the parent company - Rebuttable presumption where the parent company has a 100 % shareholding)

2009/C 267/28

Language of the case: English

Parties

Appellants: Akzo Nobel NV, Akzo Nobel Nederland BV, Akzo Nobel Chemicals International BV, Akzo Nobel Chemicals BV and Akzo Nobel Functional Chemicals BV (represented by: C. Swaak, M. van der Woude and M. Mollica, avocats)

Other party to the proceedings: Commission of the European Communities (represented by: X. Lewis and F. Castillo de la Torre, Agents)

Re:

Appeal against the judgment of the Court of First Instance (Second Chamber) of 12 December 2007 in Case T-112/05 Akzo Nobel NV and Others v Commission of the European Communities, which rejected an application for annulment of Commission Decision 2005/566/EC of 9 December 2004 relating to a proceeding under Article 81 of the EC Treaty and Article 53 of the EEA Agreement (Case COMP/E-2/37.533 — Choline chloride) (OJ 2005 L 190, p. 22) concerning a complex of agreements and concerted practices consisting of price fixing, market sharing and agreed actions against competitors in the European market for choline chloride — Concept of undertaking within the meaning of Article 81 EC and Article 23(2) of Regulation No 1/2003.

Operative part of the judgment

The Court:

(1)  OJ C 128, 24.5.2008.