EU: Cable-maker asks highest court to fight dawn raids

Cable manufacturer Nexans SA has gone to the highest court in the EU as it looks to appeal a recent European Commission decision that ordered the company’s offices to be raided by officials, resulting in the seizure of swathes of documents. If granted, Nexans is looking to have the EU Court of Justice return the case for review to the lower EU Court, the EU General Court. In court documents, Nexans has called the raids “overly broad, insufficiently justified and insufficiently precise.” A similar case was presented to the EU General Court when a decision partially annulled the Commission’s ruling in 2009 to raid Nexans and Prysmian SpA concerning an investigation that accused the companies of price-fixing undersea and underground cables; Nexans now argues that the previous ruling should not have rejected the company’s argument to annul the raids. The Commission sent formal complaints to several companies concerning the matter in 2011.

Full Content: Businessweek

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