Court upholds fine on E.ON for breaking seal
€38 million fine was “justified and proportionate”.
The EU’s General Court has upheld a fine of €38 million imposed on German energy provider E.ON.
The fine was imposed on the company by the European Commission in January 2008, after a seal placed on a door containing sensitive company documents was broken.
The seal had been placed by the Commission on the door to a room at the company’s Munich offices as part of an investigation into anti-competitive practices in May 2006.
The General Court today rejected E.ON’s application for the fine to be annulled or reduced.
In its ruling, the court said that the Commission was entitled to consider that the seal had been negligently broken and that the company was required to take all necessary measures to prevent any tampering.
The court also ruled that the size of the fine, which amounts to approximately 0.14 % of its turnover, was not disproportionate to the infringement given the particularly serious nature of breaking a seal and the size of the company involved.
It also said that the fine needed to be large enough to be a sufficient deterrent to ensure a company cannot gain any advantage by breaking a seal during inspections.
The Commission is permitted to impose fines of up to 1% of a company’s turnover if seals are broken.
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