UPC CFI, LD Mannheim, 17 July 2025: No confidentially club for information provided in enforcement proceedings granted
12-08-2025 Print this page
Confidentiality club regime request for information to be provided in enforcement proceedings rejected (R. 262A RoP).
First, it would have been for the defendants to already submit in the main proceedings that any information they would have to render in case of the court finding for infringement should be subject to special confidentiality provisions to be included in the main decision.
Second, the court already clarified in its main decision as cited supra that the information to be rendered “must not be used for any other purpose than the purposes mentioned above”. This was to emphasize that it is an imminent characteristic of the information rendered in the course of enforcement proceedings, which are based on the enforceable operative part of a court decision, that the information may only be used in that context and e.g. not to engage in behaviour which were counter to antitrust law. Therefore alone, no further clarifications as applied for by Defendants are necessary.
Third, a further protection may be possible under special circumstances “in case of an indication of a specific risk of misuse”. Defendants failed to submit any such facts.
Defendants err, that the information being rendered in the course of enforcement proceedings may only be used until the termination of proceedings or until five years after receipt of such information (pointing to Art. 72 UPCA.). The decision is enforceable in various jurisdictions for a much longer time than five years.
