15. 2. 85 Official Journal of the European Communities | No L 46/51 COMMISSION DECISION of 23 January 1985 relating to a proceeding under Article 11 (5) of Council Regulation No 17 (IV/C/31.163) (Only the Greek text is authentic) (85/121/EEC) THE COMMISSION OF THE EUROPEAN COMMUNITIES, Having regard to the Treaty establishing the European Economic Community, : Having regard to Council Regulation No 17 of 6 February 1962, First Regulation implementing Articles 85 and 86 of the Treaty (), as last amended by the Act of Accession of Greece, and in particular Article 11 (5) thereof, Whereas : 1. Olympic Airways AE is an airline wholly owned by the Greek Government and having its principal office at Avenue Sygros 96, Athens 404, Greece. Its main activity consists of the provision of air trans- port services. It also provides handling services for commercial aircraft and passengers at Greek airports. It enjoys a monopoly in the provision of these handling services. Handling services consist principally of coordinating and technical services required by an aircraft which lands and deposits passengers at an airport, such as baggage handling, marshalling of the aircraft to a point, the provision of electric power, of steps, cleaning facilities and so on. 2. On 28 February 1984 the Commission received a complaint from the Association des Compagnie Aériennes de la Communauté (hereinafter ACE) alleging that Olympic Airways, had, by increasing its charges for handling services by nearly 50 %, abused its dominant position. ACE also complained that the manner of implementation of this price increase discriminated arbitrarily between different classes of customers. 3. In order to determine whether the prices charged by Olympic Airways are so high as to be excessive or unfair and therefore abusive, Olympic Airways was requested, under Article 11 of Regulation No (' OJ No 13, 21. 2. 1962, p. 204/62. 17, to supply certain information on inter alia its costs, its monopoly or quasi-monopoly and the manner in which price increases were imple- mented. This letter was dated 8 May 1984, and a time limit of one month from date of receipt of the letter was indicated. . By letter dated 28 May 1984 Olympic Airways stated that they did not interpret Articles 85 and 86 of the Treaty as having as yet any force or applica- tion in the air transport sector. Consequently Olympic Airways could not have committed any infringement under those Articles. An incomplete and general reply was given to one of the questions asked. . 1. Regulation No 17 applies to these services since they do not form part of the transport market within the meaning of Council Regulation No 141 of 26 November 1962 exempting transport from the application of Council Regulation No 17 (). Regulation No 17 applies to all anti-competitive practices within the meaning of Articles 85 and 86 in the transport sector only in so far as Regulation No 141 does not exclude them. The anti- competitive practices excluded by Regulation No 141 were confined to certain practices consisting in the provision of air transport as such. This can be seen from the third recital of Regulation No 141 which states that ‘the distinctive features of trans- port make it justifiable to exempt from the applica- tion of Regulation No 17 only agreements, deci- sions and concerted practices directly relating to the provision of ‘transport services. Thus only certain agreements, decisions and concerted prac- tices and, by analogy, anti-competitive practices within the meaning of Article 86, which consist in themselves in the provision of a transport service, are covered by Regulation No 141. Handling services are not as such a transport service and are therefore covered by Regulation No 17. () OJ No 124, 28. 11. 1962, p. 2751/62.