By Foo Yun Chee

Brussels (Reuters) – Michelin won a partial victory against the European Union (EU) on Wednesday on the searches made last year in its offices, the European Commission suspecting anti -competitive practices between tire manufacturers.

This decision could reduce the scope of the commission’s investigation and the potential fines.

The second highest European jurisdiction said that the European competition regulator could not use seized documents concerning a certain period, because they did not have enough clues that an alleged agreement on prices took place on these dates.

The court did not specify when when this period was spread, any more than the European Commission in its 2024 declaration announcing the searches.

Michelin did not immediately respond to requests for comments sent by email. The Commission said it would study the judgment and think about any measures to be taken.

“The judgment confirms that the inspection decision was neither arbitrary nor disproportionate compared to the alleged offense during the main period. The inspections carried out in other premises were neither disputed nor canceled,” said a spokesperson for the Commission.

Agreements

Michelin, as well as the Italian Pirelli, the German continental and the Finnish Nokian Tyres are part of a group of tires manufacturers searching in January 2024 by the European Commission, which suspected them of having violated the EU rules on the agreements between companies.

The searches targeted the offices of companies and several executives, while the regulators also copied the content of computers, phones and tablets.

The investigation is underway and will probably take years before succeeding. In the European Union, fines for understanding can amount to 10% of the world’s annual turnover of a company.

Michelin’s response illustrates the growing desire to challenge European regulators. In February, the American manufacturer of NVIDIA chips brought legal action against them, believing that they had exceeded their powers in terms of merger during the acquisition of the startup run: AI. The Californian giant had already obtained the EU agreement for the operation.

The national brewery, the largest brewery in Luxembourg, lost a legal appeal in July against the European Commission. The European court judged that the Commission had the right to examine its project to acquire the distributor of drinks in large drinks Heintz.

In his own file, Michelin argued that European regulators did not justify their searches.

The court partially agreed to the tire manufacturer, believing that the Commission had “sufficiently serious” index “of an alleged agreement only for the so -called main period, but not for the previous period referred to in the contested decision. The latter must therefore be “partially canceled,” said the judges.

Michelin and the Commission can contest the decision before the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU).

The name of the file is T-88/24 General Company of Michelin/Commission establishments.

(FOO Yun Chee report; Florence Lève, edited by Kate Entringer)

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