The General Court (“GC”) handed down an order upholding the Commission’s decision on payment of costs of 30,000 EUR to BASF Schweiz AG and BASF Lampertheim GmbH (together “BASF”) for revocation of the Commission’s fining decision in the heat stabilizers cartel. In November 2009, the Commission imposed a fine totaling 68 MEUR on BASF for taking part in the heat stabilizers cartel. However, the decision was made 10 years after the infringement had ended. Originally, the Commission held that the limitation period had been suspended by virtue of appeals lodged by other companies under investigation. However, in March 2011 the Court of Justice of the European Union found in the ArcelorMittal case that lodging an appeal only has the effect of suspending the limitation period in relation to the companies that actually lodged the appeal. Therefore, the Commission revoked its decision to fine BASF. In consequence, BASF requested the Commission to reimburse its costs in the amount of EUR 167,420.03. However, the Commission only agreed to pay costs of EUR 30,000. The GC held that the amount of EUR 30,000 is a fair evaluation of the costs recoverable by BASF. The GC found, inter alia, that that the new point of EU law raised in this case did not justify the recoverable costs alleged by BASF and that the action could not be regarded as being of exceptional financial interest to BASF as the fine initially imposed only represented 1.8% of BASF's annual turnover. Source: Case T 25/10 DEP, BASF Schweiz AG and BASF Lampertheim GmbH v Commission, Order of the General Court, 14 January 2013