General Court (First Chamber, sitting with five Judges) 17 September 2007, T-125/03 and T-253/03 (Akzo Nobel Chemicals Ltd and Akcros Chemicals Ltd v Commission of the European Communities.)

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In joined competition law enforcement cases, the Court of First Instance held that an action for annulment against the decision ordering an investigation under Article 14(3) of Regulation No 17 was inadmissible, as the legally operative acts affecting the applicants' position were the tacit rejection of legal professional privilege (LPP) through seizure of the Set B documents and the formal rejection decision of 8 May 2003 concerning Set A documents. On the merits, the Court found that the Commission procedurally infringed LPP by compelling a cursory inspection of disputed documents over the applicants' objections and by reading the Set B documents without first affording the applicants an opportunity to seek judicial review, but held that none of the five disputed documents substantively qualified for LPP protection. The Court confirmed that LPP under Community law does not extend to communications with in-house lawyers bound by an employment relationship, regardless of their membership of a national Bar, nor to internal memoranda not drawn up exclusively for the purpose of seeking legal advice from an independent external lawyer.AI