Jurisdiction(s):
United Kingdom

Key definition

Commission definition

What does Commission mean? In legal practice, a commission is a payment, usually percentage‑based, made to an agent, broker or introducer for securing business or facilitating a transaction. Under UK bribery law, the Bribery Act 2010 (England & Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland) does not define commission, but criminalises offering, promising, giving, requesting or receiving a financial or other advantage to induce or reward improper performance. A commission may constitute such an advantage depending on intent, knowledge and context; not every commission is a bribe. Transparent, proportionate, contractual commissions for genuine services are generally lawful, whereas concealed or disproportionate payments, particularly to public...

Schindler v Commission (C‑501/11): CJEU upholds Elevators and Escalators cartel fines; parental liability, mitigation, compliance programmes, and Article 6 ECHR and effective judicial protection arguments rejected

Published by a LexisNexis Competition expert

Practice notes

CASE HUB ARCHIVED —this archived case hub reflects the position at the date of the judgment of 18 July 2013; it is no longer maintained. See further: timeline, commentary and related/relevant cases

Case facts

Outline

Schindler, together with several subsidiaries within the Schindler group, appealed the General Court’s judgment that dismissed its action seeking annulment of the commission’s decision, which had found an infringement and imposed a €143.7m fine for its alleged role in a lifts and escalators cartel between 1995 and 2004. At the time the Commission adopted that decision, the combined administrative penalties of €992.3m on four lift and escalator manufacturers constituted the highest overall fine the Commission had ever imposed for a cartel breach; it also included what was then the largest individual penalty on an undertaking (ThyssenKrupp)—a sum later cut by nearly €160m on appeal following the General Court’s judgment. This case explores (among other points) the interaction between the Commission’s administrative procedure for enforcing competition law and the protection of fundamental rights (as guaranteed, for example, under the European Convention on Human Rights—ECHR), and considers whether the former is compatible with the latter...

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Web page updated on 21/05/2026

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