Article 49 - Principles of legality and proportionality of criminal offences and penalties
Key fats of the case:
The complainant – Telecom Italia– questioned the legality of Decision No. 25784 of 16 December 2015, Ancillary technical service market, adopted by AGCM, which stated that the complainant – together with other partners – had engaged in an activity aimed at compromising competition in the communication field to the detriment of other companies. For this reason, the complainants were condemned to pay a significant fine. The complainants accused AGCM of imposing a sanction that was allegedly disproportionate in relation to the conduct perpetrated by the companies.
Moreover, considering that proportionality, even in the framework of antitrust legislation, is a fundamental principle of the EU set of rules (Article 5 of TFEU and Article 49, paragraph 3 of the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union), it follows that, should the Antitrust Authority have come – at the end of the procedure for calculating the fine at issue – to a result that is in breach of the proportionality principle, the decision challenged would have been unavoidably vitiated due to non-compliance with EU legislation […].
E, considerato che il principio di proporzionalità, anche nella specifica materia del diritto antitrust, è canone fondante dell’ordinamento europeo (art. 5 TFUE e art. 49, comma 3, della Carta dei Diritti Fondamentali dell’Unione Europea), ne consegue che, ove l’Autorità fosse pervenuta, all’esito del procedimento di quantificazione della sanzione de qua, ad un risultato in contrasto col principio di proporzionalità, il Provvedimento impugnato sarebbe risultato irrimediabilmente viziato sotto il profilo dell’illegittimità comunitaria […]”