L 249/12 Official Journal of the European Communities 19.9.2001 (Acts whose publication is not obligatory) COMMISSION COMMISSION DECISION of 31 July 2001 relating to a proceeding under Article 81 of the EC Treaty and Article 53 of the EEA Agreement (Case No COMP/[37.462 — Identrus) (notified under document number C(2001) 1850) (Only the German and English texts are authentic) (Text with EEA relevance) (2001/696/EC) THE COMMISSION OF THE EUROPEAN COMMUNITIES, Having regard to the Treaty establishing the European Community, Having regard to the Agreement on the European Economic Area, 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 Regulation (EC) No 1216/ 1999 (3, and in particular Articles 2, 6 and 8 thereof, Having regard to the application for negative clearance and the notification for exemption submitted pursuant to Articles 2 and 4 of Regulation No 17 on 6 April 1999, Having regard to the summary of the application and noti- fication published pursuant to Article 19(3) of Regulation No 17.0), After consulting the Advisory Committee for Restrictive Prac- tices and Dominant Positions, Whereas: I. INTRODUCTION (1)  On 6 April 1999, the Commission received an applica- tion for negative clearance or alternatively a notification for exemption, pursuant to Article 4 of Council Regula- 0] 13, 21.2.1962, p. 204/62. () O] L 148, 15.6.1999, p. 5. 0] C 231, 11.8.2000, p. 5. tion No 17, of a set of agreements (‘the Notified Agree- ments) concerning the establishment of a network of financial institutions which will operate as Certification Authorities () of trusted electronic commerce (e- commerce) transactions, initially only in the business-to- business (B2B) context. (20 The notifying Parties are ABN-AMRO Services Company, Inc., BA Interactive Service Holdings, Inc., Barclays Electronic Commerce Holdings, Inc., Bayerische Hypo- und Vereinsbank AG, The Chase Manhattan Bank, Citibank Strategic Technology, Inc., Deutsche Bank AG and Pyramid Ventures, Inc., (the ‘Parties’). (3)  For the purposes of establishing and managing the network, the Parties have formed a joint venture company, Identrus, LLC (Identrus’). Identrus was estab- lished in March 1999 pursuant to a Limited Liability Company Agreement (the ‘LLC Agreement’), governed by US Delaware law. The initial capitalisation of Identrus was contributed equally by the Parties. Identrus will provide and manage the infrastructure required for establishing a global, interoperable network among financial institutions offering Certification Authority services (the ‘Identrus System’). (4)  Besides the notifying Parties, Identrus will have a limited number of further shareholders (the ‘equity owners’) (°). No single equity owner will have control over Identrus. (*) Certification authorities are entities or legal or natural persons who issue digital certificates for electronic commerce transactions. () Since the notification was filed, the following additional institutions have become equity investors in Identrus: Australia New Zealand Banking Group, Banco Santander Central Hispano, Bank of Tokyo/ Mitsubishi, Banque Nationale de Paris, Caisse Nationale de Credit Agricole, CIBC WMC Inc., HSBC Financial Services Corporation, Industrial Bank of Japan, National Australia Bank, Royal Bank of Scotland, Sanwa Technology Services, Inc., Société Générale and Wells Fargo. Consequently, the number of Identrus's equity owners has already reached 21 and the share of any equity owner is below 8 %. According to the Parties' application for negative clearance, the envisaged final number of equity owners should not significantly exceed 20.