Luxembourg, January 15, 2026 — The EU Court of Justice said national rules may allow Italy’s Autorità Garante della Concorrenza e del Mercato (AGCM) to postpone the deadline for closing the investigation stage in Article 101 TFEU proceedings, provided the extensions are reasoned, communicated in good time, subject to judicial review, and do not result in an overall breach of the requirement to act within a reasonable time.
Background
The guidance ruling in the case stems from a dispute over penalties imposed on Imballaggi Piemontesi for participation in an alleged cartel on the market for corrugated cardboard sheets. The AGCM opened proceedings in March 2017 against 19 companies and initially set a closure deadline of May 31, 2018.
During the investigation, the authority expanded the case to additional companies — including a separate alleged “packaging cartel” — and twice postponed the deadline before closing the investigation in July 2019 and issuing a fine of EUR 6,147,746.
The referring court asked whether EU fundamental rights requirements prevent national rules that do not make the initial closing deadline mandatory and permit unilateral extensions by the authority when the scope or number of parties expands.
ECJ Guidance
The Court held that, absent specific EU procedural time limits for national enforcement of Article 101, Member States may set their own rules, but must balance legal certainty and reasonable-time requirements against the effective application of EU cartel rules. It noted that competition cases often involve complex factual and economic analysis and warned that rigid limits could create a systemic risk that infringements go unpunished, undermining effectiveness.
At the same time, the Court set safeguards: extensions should be communicated as soon as possible and in any event before the relevant deadline expires, must set a new closing date, and must give reasons explaining why the case became more complex than initially expected. The extension decision must also be open to judicial review to verify compliance with reasonable-time and defence-rights requirements.
The case is C-588/24, Imballaggi Piemontesi v AGCM, before the European Court of Justice.
Source: https://infocuria.curia.europa.eu/tabs/affair?lang=en&searchTerm=C-588%2F24
