Translation of "Palier de la procédure applicable aux griefs " (French → English) :

77. An employer shall, no later than on the tenth day after the day on which the employer was provided with a copy of a notice referred to in subsection 76(2), file with the Secretary, a copy of the reply that was made to the grievance at each level of the grievance process and a copy of the grievance replied to at the final level.

Even if Apple were to produce the Commission’s preliminary findings before national courts, the latter would be required to take into account the provisional nature of the SO and to ensure, in accordance with the applicable rules of procedure, the protection of Samsung’s rights of defence in the context of national proceedings (4).

Information that was prepared by a competition authority in the course of its proceedings for the enforcement of Union or national competition law and sent to the parties to those proceedings (such as a ‘Statement of Objections’) or prepared by a party thereto (such as replies to requests for information of the competition authority or witness statements) should therefore be disclosable in actions for damages only after the competition authority has closed its proceedings, for instance by adopting a decision under Article 5 or under Chapter III of Regulation (EC) No 1/2003, with the exception of decisions on interim measures.

Information that was prepared by a competition authority in the course of its proceedings for the enforcement of national or Union competition law (such as a Statement of Objections) or by a party to those proceedings (such as replies to requests for information of the competition authority) should therefore be disclosable in actions for damages only after the competition authority has found an infringement of the national or Union competition rules or has otherwise closed its proceedings.

The Commission may decide to initiate proceedings with a view to adopting a decision pursuant to Chapter III of Regulation (EC) No 1/2003 at any point in time, but no later than the date on which it issues a preliminary assessment as referred to in Article 9(1) of that Regulation, a statement of objections or a request for the parties to express their interest in engaging in settlement discussions, or the date on which a notice pursuant to Article 27(4) of that Regulation is published, whichever is the earlier’.

In accordance with the Commission Notice on rules for access to the Commission file (8), access to the file is only granted to the addressees of a statement of objections on the condition that the information thereby obtained may only be used for the purposes of judicial or administrative proceedings for the application of the Community competition rules at issue in the related administrative proceedings.