European Court of Justice on Article 15(3) of Regulation No 1/2003

From the judgement, C-429/07, Inspecteur van de Belastingdienst v X BV, 11.06.2009.
"(...) a literal interpretation of the first subparagraph of Article 15(3) of Regulation No 1/2003 leads to the conclusion that the option for the Commission, acting on its own initiative, to submit written observations to courts of the Member States is subject to the sole condition that the coherent application of Articles 81 EC or 82 EC so requires. That condition may be fulfilled even if the proceedings concerned do not pertain to issues relating to the application of Article 81 or Article 82 of the Treaty"
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In proceedings relating to the penalties in respect of anti‑competitive practices provided for in Article 83(2)(a) EC, the decision that the court seised must give is capable of impairing the effectiveness of those penalties and therefore might compromise the coherent application of Articles 81 EC or 82 EC.
In the circumstances of the action in the main proceedings, it is quite clear that the outcome of the dispute relating to the tax deductibility of part of a fine imposed by the Commission is capable of impairing the effectiveness of the penalty imposed by the Community competition authority. The effectiveness of the Commission’s decision by which it imposed a fine on a company might be significantly reduced if the company concerned, or at least a company linked to that company, were allowed to deduct fully or in part the amount of that fine from the amount of its taxable profits, since such a possibility would have the effect of offsetting the burden of that fine with a reduction of the tax burden.
It follows from all of the foregoing that the third sentence of the first subparagraph of Article 15(3) of Regulation No 1/2003 must be interpreted as meaning that it permits the Commission to submit on its own initiative written observations to a national court of a Member State in proceedings relating to the deductibility from taxable profits of the amount of a fine or a part thereof imposed by the Commission for infringement of Articles 81 EC or 82 EC".