Inductive components such as line filter inductors or transformers occupy a significant amount of space in today's power electronic systems, and furthermore, considerable losses occur in these components. A main application of inductive components is EMI filters, as, e.g., employed for the attenuation of switching frequency harmonics of power factor correction (PFC) rectifier systems. In this paper, a design procedure for the mains side LCL filter of an active three-phase rectifier is introduced. The procedure is based on a generic optimization approach, which guarantees a low volume and/or low losses. Different designs are calculated to show the tradeoff between filter volume and filter losses. The design procedure is verified by experimental measurements. Furthermore, an overall system optimization, i.e., an optimization of the complete three-phase PFC rectifier, is given.