EUR-Lex -  61997TO0009 - EN - Order of the Court of First Instance (First Chamber) of 9 June 1997. - Elf Atochem SA v Commission of the European Communities. - Competition - Administrative procedure - Investigations - Reports drawn up following an investigation - Action for annulmen - Actionable measures - Inadmissibility. - Case T-9/97.

Summary
Keywords

Actions for annulment - Actionable measures - Definition - Measures producing binding legal effects - Documents drawn up by the Commission's officials in the course of an investigation - Preparatory documents

(EC Treaty, Art. 173; Council Regulation No 17, Arts 3(1), 11 and 14)

Summary

Acts or decisions against which an action for annulment may be brought under Article 173 of the Treaty are measures which produce binding legal effects capable of affecting the interests of the applicant by bringing about a significant change in its legal position. In the case of acts or decisions adopted by a procedure involving several stages, an act is in principle challengeable only if it is a measure definitively laying down the position of the institution on the conclusion of that procedure, and not an intermediate step intended to pave the way for the final decision.

Documents, referred to as reports, drawn up by the Commission's officials during an investigation into an undertaking under Article 14(2) of Regulation No 17 and containing a summary of what was said by that undertaking's representatives in the course of the investigation, cannot be regarded as actionable measures in so far as they cannot be considered to affect the undertaking's legal position immediately and irreversibly.

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