Article 3
of Regulation No 17 (55) Pursuant to Article 3 of Regulation No 17, the Commission may, by decision, find an infringement of the provisions of Article 85 and oblige the undertakings or associations of undertakings concerned to bring it to an end. Notwithstanding the belated settlement agreement between QSA and QLI/C, which came about approximately one year after the sending of the statement of objections and renders an order to cease applying Article V of the protocol superfluous, the Commission considers it appropriate to adopt a formal decision in this case. Such a decision may be taken even after the parties have terminated the agreements in question, in particular when the Commission is informed after several months' delay and after the completion of the entire administrative procedure (Judgment of 17 October 1972 in Case 8/72, Cementhandelaren v. Commission (8)). In any event, in order to avoid the occurrence of analogous or equivalent infringements in future, it is necessary to clarify certain points of law connected with the present case. These concern, first, the scope of Regulation (EEC) No 418/85 and, secondly, the limits on the ancillary restrictions of competition which may be admissible in the context of a deconcentration of undertakings. It is also appropriate to re-affirm that an agreement with the object of technologically and commercially isolating the common market or a substantial part thereof from a third country is caught by Article 85 (1) and is not eligible for exemption (Decision 85/618/EEC, Siemens/Fanuc (9)), HAS ADOPTED THIS DECISION: