Alec Burnside

On 11 July, the European Court of First Instance (CFI) held that the European Commission should pay compensation to French electrical distribution company Schneider for some of the losses incurred as a result of the Commission’s prohibition of its planned merger with Legrand in 2001. In a key judgment, the CFI stated that the Commission’s failure to give Schneider an opportunity to defend itself adequately during the administrative proceedings (which culminated in the prohibition of the merger) was a sufficiently serious error to trigger.