Advocate General

Advocate General, Art. 22, Merger regulation, Merger Thresholds, Mergers

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Introduction On March 21st Advocate General Emiliou handed down his Opinion in Joined Cases C-611/22P and C-625/22P, respectively Illumina Inc. v. European Commission and Grail LLC, and Illumina Inc. v. European Commission. One can argue that the Emiliou Opinion is an exercise in throwing the proverbial kitchen sink at the position of the European Commission…

Abuse of dominance, Advocate General, European Court of Justice, Google

(University of Groningen & Emile Noël Fellow at New York University School of Law)/ /Leave a comment

Interpreting and applying Article 102 TFEU – at least in all difficult cases that typically reach the courts – requires a combined reliance on both ‘reason’ and ‘fiat’. It requires reliance on ‘reason’, by which I mean substantive reasoning about how a case should be decided, because no case is exactly like any other, and…

Advocate General, Brussels Ibis, Undertaking

(Lindenbaum)/ /1 Comment

In an opinion delivered on 11 January 2024, Advocate General Szpunar concludes that the concept of ‘undertaking’ cannot be invoked to determine the parties that can be served legal documents in antitrust damages claims. He clarifies that the concept of undertaking applies to substantive competition law only – to determine the parties who may be…

Advocate General, Anticompetitive agreements, Information exchange, Restriction by object

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In October 2023, Advocate General Rantos delivered his opinion in the context of a preliminary ruling request from Portuguese courts on whether an exchange of information between competitors can constitute a restriction of competition by “object” in breach of Article 101(1) of the TFEU. In practice, such classification relieves a competition authority from the obligation…

Advocate General, Damages, Digital, National court, United Kingdom

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On 21 September 2023, Advocate General (AG) Kokott delivered an opinion on the application of limitation rules for antitrust damages actions (Opinion) in the context of a preliminary ruling reference. She invited the Court of Justice to rule, among other things, that the limitation periods may not start to run until the relevant anticompetitive conduct…

Abuse of dominance, Advocate General, Anticompetitive agreements, European Court of Justice, European Union, Sport, Sports law

(University of Michigan)/ /Leave a comment

Introduction One of the biggest controversies in European football right now is the fight between UEFA, Europe’s continental football association, and the European Super League (ESL), a proposed breakaway league composed of some of the biggest clubs and commercial names in the sport; a case arising out of the dispute recently reached the European Court…

Advocate General, European Court of Justice, European Union, Fundamental rights, Regulation, SGEI

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My previous comment on Case-50/21 Prestige and Limousine SL v Área Metropolitana de Barcelona et al (see here) started with the following question: “Are the Supposed Regulatory Privileges of the Taxi Sector Coming to an End? The Opinion of AG Szpunar in Case C‑50/21”. The conclusions in the ECJ judgment of June 8, 2023 (Judgment)…

Abuse of dominance, Advertising, Advocate General, Digital, Digital competition, Digital economy, Digital Markets Act, Enforcement, European Court of Justice, Facebook, Germany, References for a preliminary ruling

(University Carlos III of Madrid, Spain)/ /2 Comments

On 4 July 2023, the Court of Justice resolved the conundrum around the potential interaction between data protection regulation and competition law following the legal opera that started in 2019 with the German competition authority’s case against Facebook/Meta’s processing activities (for a summary of the case, see here). The ruling hops onto Advocate General Rantos’…

Advocate General, Gun jumping, Merger control, Merger regulation, Mergers

, (White & Case) and (White & Case, Belgium)/ /2 Comments

Advocate General Anthony Michael Collins has proposed that the European Court of Justice upheld the General Court’s Altice judgment. In his Opinion, he considered that entering into certain types of pre-closing covenants by an acquirer may constitute gun-jumping, regardless of the absence of the transfer of shares. AG Collins emphasised the importance of deterrence when…

Abuse of dominance, Advocate General, European Court of Justice, Ex ante regulation, Judicial review, Merger control, Merger notification, Merger Thresholds, Mergers

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The long-awaited European Court of Justice’s judgment in Towercast confirmed that national competition authorities (and national courts) can apply abuse of dominance rules to mergers that did not trigger EU and national merger control thresholds and were not referred to the European Commission under Article 22 of the EU Merger Regulation. However, uncertainties still remain….