On 18 December 2008, the Court of First Instance (CFI) (in Case T-85/06) dismissed an appeal brought by Repsol YPF SA, Repsol Quimica SA and General Quimica SA against the European Commission’s (Commission) decision to fine all three companies for their involvement in the rubber chemicals cartel. In December 2005, the Commission fined a number of companies a total of €75.86m for their participation in a price-fixing and information-sharing cartel. The applicant companies in this case were together fined €3.38m. The companies appealed against the fine claiming that the Commission had erred in finding that Repsol YPF and Repsol Quimica were jointly and severably liable with their subsidiary, General Quimica. The CFI held that the conduct of a subsidiary could be attributed to the parent company where the subsidiary is not fully independent in its conduct on the market place. The onus would be on the parent company to demonstrate independence and the parties had failed to demonstrate this. The CFI went on to confirm that the Commission had correctly applied its own Leniency Guidelines when calculating the fines and had already taken into account General Quimica’s relative passive and minor role in the cartel in calculating the fine it had imposed.