The General Court of the European Union (EU) ruled on Tuesday that the European Commission must pay interest on fines imposed on companies for violating competition rules and annulled or reduced by European justice.
According to a press release, Tuesday’s decision stipulates that “when the General Court or the UN Court overturns or reduces a fine imposed by the Commission on a company for violating competition rules, that institution must not only refund the full or partial amount.” the amount of the fine previously paid by the company, as well as the need to pay interest for the period between the date of advance payment of this fine and the date of its reimbursement.”
This is not about payment of interest for late payment, but about interest intended to compensate the company in a fixed amount in connection with the deprivation of the right to use the specified amount.
The decision is based on a complaint from German telecommunications company Deutsche Telekom, in which the community manager will have to pay interest equal to the European Central Bank refinancing rate plus 3.5 percentage points.
In October 2014, Brussels fined the company €32 million for abusing its dominant market position, paid in January 2015, with an appeal against the decision already pending.
The General Court reduced the imposed fine by 12 million euros, and in February 2019 the Commission returned 19 million euros to Deutsche Telekom, refusing to charge interest.
The company appealed to the Court of Justice, which upheld the interest claim, and Brussels appealed to the General Court, which confirmed the decision on Tuesday.