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a parent company can exert decisive influence. Secondly, it exercises such influence on
the subsidiaries in relation to anticompetitive conduct. 18

The Akzo case presumption

Afterwards, the ECJ delivered one of the most influential cases concerning
parental liability in case Akzo. The judgment has been referred by subsequent cases
19
and discussed by academics on their potential effects toward the principle of parental
liability in EU competition law. The case concerns choline chloride industry cartel,
20
where five subsidiaries in the Akzo Nobel group were active in and all of their shares

were held by Akzo Nobel. The Commission found that these entities constituted a single
economic entity, and since the parent company had all the shares in its subsidiaries,
there was a presumption that it was in a position to exert decisive influence over its

subsidiary. In the judgment, the ECJ added further determinations of the autonomy
21
aspect of subsidiaries by regarding “in particular to the economic, organisational and
legal links between those two legal entities.” The ECJ went on and articulated that
22
“the fact that a parent company and its subsidiary constitute a single undertaking within
the meaning of Article [101] enables the Commission to address a decision imposing

fines to the parent company, without having to establish the personal involvement
of the latter in the infringement.” As a result, the ECJ held that in a case where a parent
23
company owns 100% of shares in its subsidiary which infringed EU competition law,

18 Carsten Koenig, An economic analysis of the single economic entity doctrine in EU Competition Law
(2017) Journal of Competition Law & Economics, 13(2), p.288; Karl Hofstetter and Melanie Ludescher, Fines
against Parent Companies in EU Antitrust Law: Setting Incentives for ‘Best Practice Compliance’ (2010) World
Competition 33, No. 1, p.58;
19 C-97/08 P Akzo Nobel and Others v Commission ECLI:EU:C:2009:536
20 Andriani Kalintiri, Evidence Standards in EU Competition Enforcement: The EU Approach. (Oxford,:
Hart Publishing, 2019), p.161-165; Marco Bronckers and Ann Vallery , No Longer Presumed Guilty ? The Impact
of Fundamental Rights on Certain Dogmas of EU Competition Law ( 2011 ) World Competition 34 no.4, p. 548-58;
Lukas Solek and Stefan Wartinger, Parental Liability : Rebutting the Presumption of Decisive Influence (2015)
Journal of European Competition Law & Practice, 2015, Vol. 6, No. 2
21 C-97/08 P Akzo Nobel, supra (n.19), para 15
22 Ibid, para 58
23 Ibid, para 59

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