ANTITRUST | The GC on the EU Commission’s inspections under Regulation No. 1/2003

On 30 April 2025, the General Court of the EU (GC), issued its judgment (“Judgment”) on case T‑263/23 (Symrise AG v Commission and others) concerning the appeal brought by Symrise (Company) against the EU Commission’s Decision 10 February 2023. In this decision, the EU Commission ordered the Company and all its subsidiaries to submit to an inspection in accordance with Council Regulation (EC) No. 1/2003 of 16 December 2002 on the implementation of the rules on competition laid down in Articles 81 and 82 of the Treaty. In the Judgment, the Court outlined the great discretion upon the EU Commission to assess whether an inspection measure is necessary to detect an infringement of the competition rules and confirmed the principle according to which inspections can be carried out even based on investigations conducted ex officio.

Newsletter n. 107 – May 2025