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Law
Competition Policy

Antitrust Cases Search user's guide

Guidance on searching for Antitrust cases in the Competition Case Search Tool.

Simple search form

To find a case, you can select one or more search criteria:

  1. Select the relevant criteria for the search. In criteria where multiple options are possible, you can select more than one criterion by pressing the CTRL key and clicking with the mouse on several rows.
  2. Click on "Search" or press the "ENTER" key to run the search.
  3. A list of the cases matching the criteria should be displayed. The basic information provided comprise: "Policy Area", "case number", "Member state", "last decision date" and "case title". You may sort the result by clicking on heading of any of these criteria.
  4. On the results page you can choose to "print" the results, "Refine the search" with the same criteria or "Make a new search", which clears the form.
  5. Display "Show detail" in order to obtain the accessible information on a selected case or cases. Select "Hide detail" to return to the original list of cases. One can also display the details of a case in a separate screen by selecting "Case number". The content is the same as when clicking on "Show detail".

Case number

The case number is unique for each case, for example: 36463 (Antitrust, including Cartels)

If you are not sure about the full case number, but know a part of it, you can use the operator "%".
Examples:

  • searching for "35%" will retrieve all the cases where the case number starts by "35".
  • searching for "%35" will retrieve all the cases where the case number ends with "35".
  • searching for "%35%" will retrieve all cases where the case number contains "35"

Case title or company name

This search tool looks for words or part of words that are contained in the title of the case or the company/organisation name. The more complete you type the name in, the more the search will be accurate, especially for composed names. If you type more than one word, the search engine will retrieve cases that contain all words in the title.

  • Complaint case titles will generally consist of the short names of the plaintiff and the defendant, in that order and separated by a forward slash (/).
  • Ex officio or cartels cases have a title related to the market/product concerned (for example case 39396 Calcium carbide)
  • For historic cases involving notification (Regulation 17/62), the title simply contains the name of the undertakings separated by a +.
  • See also special lists in the Antitrust advanced Search

Decision date

This is the date when the Commission adopted its last published decision on the case. The database contains cases object of a decision from:

  • For Antitrust/Cartels: 1 January 1999 (Antitrust, including Cartel). However there is a limited number of cases of 1998. A list of older cases from 1964 to 1998 can be found in the Antitrust advanced Search form.
  • For Mergers: the entry into force of the Merger Regulation on 21 September 1990.
  • For State Aids: 1 January 2000.

Economic sector

NACE Rev 2 is the Statistical classification of economic activities in the European Community (see full list of NACE codes).
Click on "Select" to obtain the NACE code selection tree; from there you can select a major category and all subcategories or expand the list by clicking on the corresponding "+" sign to select one or more sub-categories only.

Web publication date

This is the date where the information was posted on this website.

 

    Advanced search form

    Document title

    Select this option if you look for a word contained in the document or in the press release title. For example, the word "statement" may find out all the cases where the Commission confirmed sending a statement of objections; "statement" being indicated in the title of press releases.

    Legal basis

    Select this option if you look for the EC Treaty article(s) covering the treatment of the case by the Commission.

    Cases range

    Use this option if you want to select a range of cases by case number.

    Document date

    The date indicates the creation of the document or its last update if applicable.