L 330/44 Official Journal of the European Union 15.12.2007 COMMISSION COMMISSION DECISION of 13 September 2007 relating to a proceeding pursuant to Article 81 of the EC Treaty (Case COMPJE-2/39.143 — Opel) (notified under document number C(2007) 4277) (Only the English text is authentic) (2007/836[EC) This Decision adopted pursuant to Article 9(1) of Council Regulation (EC) No 1/2003 of 16 December 2002 on the implementation of the rules on competition laid down in Articles 81 and 82 of the Treaty (1) is addressed to General Motors Europe (hereinafter GME) and concerns the supply of technical information for the repair of vehicles of the Opel and Vauxhall brands. Technical information consists of data, processes and instructions which are necessary to check, repair and replace defective/brokenfused parts of a motor vehicle or to fix failures in any of a vehicle’s systems. It includes seven main categories: — basic parameters (documentation of all reference values and set points of the measurable values concerning the vehicle, such as torque settings, brake clearance measurements, hydraulic and pneumatic pressures), — diagrams and descriptions of stages in repair and main- tenance operations (service handbooks, technical documents such as work plans, descriptions of tools used to carry out a given repair, and diagrams such as wiring schematics or hydraulics), — testing and diagnosis (including diagnostic fault/- trouble-shooting codes, software and other information needed to diagnose faults on vehicles) — much, but not all, of this information is contained in specialised electronic tools, — codes, software and other information needed to re- program, re-set or re-initialise the electronic control units (ECUs) embarked on a vehicle. This category is linked to the preceding one, in that often the same () O] L 1, 4.1.2003, p. 1. Regulation as last amended by Regulation (EC) No 411/2004 (O] L 68, 6.3.2004, p. 1). electronic tools are used to diagnose the fault, and then make the necessary adjustments via the ECUs to deal with it, — spare parts information, including parts catalogues with codes and descriptions, and vehicle identification methods (that is to say, data relating to a specific vehicle which enable a repairer to identify the indi- vidual codes for the parts fitted during vehicle assembly, and to identify the corresponding codes for compatible original replacement parts for that specific vehicle), — special information (recall notices and notification of frequent faults), — training materials. In December 2006, the Commission opened proceedings, and addressed a preliminary assessment to GME, containing the preliminary view that GME's agreements with its after-sales service partners raised concerns as to their compatibility with Article 81(1) of the EC Treaty. In the Commission’s preliminary assessment, GME seemed to have failed to release certain categories of technical repair information well after the end of the transitional period provided for in Commission Regulation (EC) No 1400/2002 of 31 July 2002 on the application of Article 81(3) of the Treaty to categories of vertical agreements and concerted practices in the motor vehicle sector (). Moreover, at the time that the Commission’s investigation was launched, GME had still not put in place an effective system to allow independent repairers to have access to technical repair information in an unbundled manner. Although GME improved the accessi- bility of its technical information over the course of the Commission investigation, the information made available to independent repairers seemed to be still incomplete. () O] L 203, 1.8.2002, p. 30.