Upon partial reimbursement of a fine which is provisionally paid in compliance with an antitrust decision and subsequently reduced, the sanctioned company is also entitled to an interest for delayed payment
The General Court has awarded nearly 1.8 million euros to a German company for damage suffered due to the European Commission's refusal to pay interest for delayed payment to the company on the recoverable portion of the initially paid and subsequently reduced fine imposed on the company for competition law infringements.
According to the Court, the reduction in the amount of the fine has a retroactive effect, therefore an interest for delayed payment is due as of the date of the payment of the portion of the fine that was found to be undue until the day of its reimbursement.
The applicable interest for delayed payment has been calculated by reference to the interest rate under Article 83(2)(b) of Delegated Regulation (EU) No 1268/2012, namely the interest rate applied by the European Central Bank in its primary refinancing operations, increased by 3.5 percentage points.
