Report for the Hearing delivered in Case 69/87

I — Facts and written procedure

1. Article 1 of Commission Decision No 3715/83/ECSC of 23 December 1983, in which the Commission recognized the existence of a manifest crisis in the Community steel industry and established a system of minimum prices, provides that the Commission is to fix minimum selling prices for certain steel products, including cold-rolled sheet.

2. Further to inspections carried out between 9 September and 1 October 1985 at the premises of the steel undertaking known as Società Laminazione a Freddo pA, the applicant (hereinafter referred to as LAF), the Commission sent a letter dated 21 March 1986 to LAF alleging that it had failed to comply with Decision No 3715/83/ECSC because in sales of uncoated, cold-rolled sheet and wide strip to companies controlled by FIAT SpA of Turin during the first quarter of 1985, LAF had applied basis prices lower than the minimum prices published by the Commission and had granted unpublished quantity rebates. The Commission's letter stated that the transactions in question accounted for a total of LIT 1868394000 of undercutting, in respect of 84927 tonnes delivered, representing illegal sales to the value of LIT 55942923623, in contravention of Article 1 of Decision No 3715/83/ECSC.

II — Conclusions of the parties

The applicant claims that the Court should :

The Commission claims that the Court should:

III — Submissions and arguments of the parties

1. LAF maintains that the 13 contracts for the supply of goods, concluded between itself and the companies within the FIAT group which use sheet and wide cold-rolled strip, are concerned with non-comparable transactions for the purposes of Article 3 of High Authority Decision No 30/53 of 2 May 1953, and that they are therefore not subject to the minimum price system introduced by Decision No 3715/83/ECSC.

2. The Commission contends, in the first place, that the concept of non-comparable transactions has nothing to do with Article 61 of the ECSC Treaty and in no way constitutes a general exception from the system of minimum prices.

1 Language of the Case: Italian.

2 Decision of 2 May 1953 on the publication of price-lists and conditions of sale applied by undertakings in the steel industry, as amended by Commission Decision 72/441 /ECSC of 22 December 1972 (OJ, English Special Edition 1972 (30 and 31 December), p. 22).

3 Commission Decision of 23 May 1973 obliging undertakings of the steel industry to publish schedules of transport charges for routes involving intra-Community sea links (OJ 1973, L 172, p. 21).

4 High Authority Decision of 1 June 1967 supplementing and amending Decision No 21/66 requiring undertakings in the steel industry to make returns of invoiced prices for deliveries of steel products (OJ, English Special Edition 1967, p. 26).

5 Commission Decision of 26 July 1982 on the returns to be made by undertakings in the iron and steel industry in respect of their substandard products and seconds (OJ 1982, L 218, p. 13).