# Commission Decision of 20 October 2005 relating to a proceeding under Article 81(1) of the EC Treaty (Case COMP/C.38.281/B.2 — Raw tobacco Italy) (notified under document number C(2005) 4012) (Only the English and Italian texts are authentic) (2006/901/EC), Division 7: Legal assessment

Extent: E+W+S+N.I.

In the Decision, the Commission finds that the practices described above constitute three separate (single and continuous) infringements of Article 81 of the Treaty.
All the participants in the infringements to which the Decision is addressed are or form part of undertakings, associations of undertakings or associations of associations of undertakings within the meaning of Article 81 of the Treaty.
Agreements and/or concerted practices which directly or indirectly fix transaction prices or share quantities are by their very object restrictive of competition. More specifically, co-ordination by the processors of their purchasing conduct in this case affected fundamental aspects of their competitive conduct and was also by definition capable of affecting the behaviour of the same companies in any other market in which they compete, including downstream markets. These conducts are specifically envisaged under Article 81(1) of the EC Treaty.
Such conducts are capable, at least potentially, to have an impact on the trade of raw tobacco between Italy and other Member States, as they cover a significant amount of the purchases of Italian raw tobacco and relate to a product (raw tobacco) which is an intermediate product of processed tobacco, a product which is largely exported.
The Decision addresses the issue of the application of Council Regulation No 26 of 4 April 1962 (applying certain rules on competition to production of and trade in agricultural products — ‘Regulation No 26’) to the practices which are being considered. It concludes that the restrictive practices at issue cannot be regarded as being ‘necessary’ for the attainment of the objectives of the Common agricultural policy and are therefore fully subject to the application of Article 81(1) of the Treaty.
Finally, the Decision concludes that neither national law nor the administrative practice obliged the processors to agree on the average or maximum purchase price for raw tobacco or to share out quantities of tobacco to be bought by each processor. Moreover, such regulatory framework did not require processors and producers to agree collectively on the ‘contract prices’ nor did it remove all possibility of competitive behaviour on their part. Consequently, the agreements and/or concerted practices of the producer representatives, on the one hand, and the processors, on the other, are fully caught by Article 81(1) of the Treaty.

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Source: https://www.legislation.gov.uk/eudn/2006/901/division/7 (the official version)
Page: https://openlegislation.uk/eu-decision-2006-901/division-7
Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0. Source: legislation.gov.uk, The National Archives.