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Articoli Correlati: Competition law - double criminality - accumulation of proceedings and sanctions

On 22^nd March 2022, the E.U. Court of Justice with two sentences pronounced in cases C-117/20 bpost e C-151/20 Nordzucker e a. clarified the scope and the limits of the prohibition of double criminality regarding the possible accumulation of proceedings and sanctions in competition law. In fact, as in any other matter, the relevant criterion for the purposes of assessing the existence of the same crime is that of the identity of the material facts. As regards the first case, a company can be sanctioned for an infringement, when for the same facts it has already been the subject of a final decision due to the violation of sectoral legislation. On the second question, according to the “ne bis in idem” principle, an undertaking can be prosecuted by the competition authority of a Member State for conduct which has had an anticompetitive object or effect in the territory of that State, when such action has already been mentioned by an authority of another Member Stat, in a final decision which, however, must not be based on a finding of anticompetitive objective effect in the territory of the first Member State. If that were the case, the second authority would nor respect the prohibition of double criminality.