After almost three years since the Commission sent Apple its statement of objections, which was significantly trimmed down, the Commission reached a finding of abuse for which it imposed a whopping fine of 1.8 billion euros. Alongside this case, Apple was also involved in an almost identical case running parallel in the Netherlands, with similar…

What a difference five years make. In 2019, the European Union (EU) created a modest common framework for foreign direct investment (FDI) screening, Regulation 2019/452 (the FDI Regulation), stressing that decisions on proposed investments, and even the decision whether to engage in FDI screening at all, remained with EU Member States. A pandemic and two…

The Digital Markets Act (DMA) is now applicable. Following the 6-month interim period where gatekeepers had the opportunity to adapt their business models to the regulation, the DMA now requires them to prove their effective compliance with its provisions. To do that, on 7 March 2024, the six designated gatekeepers in September (see here) presented…

The first months of application of the EU Foreign Subsidies Regulation (FSR) have involved a large number of notifications, lengthy and wide-ranging requests for information, and the opening of the first in-depth investigation. We take a look at the key highlights from the FSR’s opening period and practical implications for companies navigating the still quite…

On 8 February 2024, the Commission published the long-awaited final text of the revised Market Definition Notice. Over a quarter of a century after the adoption of the first Market Definition Notice in 1997, we have a new and improved version ready for the modern age. The revised Notice covers a lot of ground: it…

TikTok’s parent company, ByteDance, has not managed to suspend the effects of the European Commission’s designation decision (for comment on the designation decisions, see here). However, the appeal that ByteDance directed at the designation decision will be given the benefit of an expedited procedure. This is the first time that the General Court uttered a…

The D-day for the Digital Markets Act (DMA) compliance is fast approaching. Starting from March 2024, the regulatory framework’s substantive obligations will start to apply to the six designated gatekeepers concerning 22 of their core platform services (on the first designation decisions issued by the European Commission see here). In the meantime, the European Commission…

On 22 September 2023, the European Commission adopted a decision imposing a fine of €376.36 million on microprocessor manufacturer Intel. This decision relates to the facts that had already been sanctioned in an earlier decision of 13 May 2009. How can this apparent inconsistency be explained? In fact, the first decision was annulled in January…

On 9 January 2024, Apple offered several commitments under Article 9 Regulation 1/2003 to address the competition concerns of the European Commission in the markets for mobile wallets on iOS, inter alia to ensure effective interoperability with the Near Field Communication (NFC) functionality on iOS. This post will give an initial overview of Apple’s proposed…

In September 2023, the European Commission (EC) issued its first designation decisions under the Digital Markets Act (DMA) (see the quick-fire reaction to those decisions here). It sets under the regulatory framework’s scope of application six different gatekeepers for twenty-two core platform services. At first glance, the designation decisions seemed straightforward enough: the European Commission…