European Court of Justice

Anticompetitive agreements, Competition enforcement, European Court of Justice, France, National competition authorities (NCAs), Public procurement

, (Latham & Watkins LLP)/ /1 Comment

On 25 November 2020, the French Competition Authority (FCA) announced that it was amending its decision-making practice regarding responses to calls for tenders by subsidiaries of the same group. Up until now, the FCA considered that it was unlawful for subsidiaries of the same group to submit separate tenders in the same public procurement procedure…

Digital economy, European Court of Justice, Jurisdiction, Private enforcement

(bureau Brandeis Paris)/ /Leave a comment

The Grand Chamber of the Court of Justice of the European Union (ECJ) issued today its judgment in Case C-59/19 Wikingerhof v. Booking.com. This ruling will certainly be of great interest to the corporate victims of abuses of a dominant digital platform. This judgment addresses both the nature of the action which alleged victims of…

Competition proceedings, European Court of Human Rights, European Court of Justice, European Union, Evidence, Witness

(Latham & Watkins LLP)/ /Leave a comment

On 22 October 2020, the European Court of Justice (ECJ) confirmed in Silver Plastics that the General Court (GC) is not bound to accept a request for the examination of witnesses when it has sufficiently proven that an undertaking took part in an anti-competitive agreement.   Executive Summary The ECJ has confirmed that there is…

Competition proceedings, European Court of Justice, European Union, Facebook, Fundamental rights, General Court of the European Union, Investigations, Privacy, Request for information (RFI)

(Clifford Chance LLP, Belgium) and (Clifford Chance LLP, Italy)/ /Leave a comment

In the context of ongoing antitrust investigations into Facebook Inc.’s (‘Facebook’) data-related practices (AT.40628) and Facebook marketplace (AT.40684), on 13 March 2020 the European Commission (‘Commission’) issued two formal requests for information (‘RFIs’), requiring the company to produce a large number of internal documents. Facebook challenged the RFIs before the General Court of the European…

Apple, Arm's length principle, European Commission, European Court of Justice, Fiscal aid, Ireland, State aid, Taxation

(Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton LLP)/ /Leave a comment

Background On July 15, 2020, the General Court annulled the 2016 Commission Decision ordering Ireland to recover EUR 13 billion of illegal State aid from Apple,[1] chiefly, because the Commission had not demonstrated to the requisite legal standard that an advantage had been granted.[2] On the same day, the Commission’s Executive Vice-President M. Vestager released…

Energy Policy, Euratom Treaty, European Court of Justice, Nuclear Energy, State aid, Sustainability, United Kingdom

(Greenberg Traurig Germany LLP)/ /Leave a comment

Months before the prospective final Brexit, the ECJ laid what is in all likelihood the last State aid milestone on the UK’s path out of the European Union – at the same time, the ECJ’s judgment in the „Hinkley Point C“ case (Case C-594/18 P Austria v Commission) is a farewell gift to the remaining…

ECN, European Court of Justice, National competition authorities (NCAs), References for a preliminary ruling, Spain

(University of Vienna, Austria)/ /Leave a comment

A welcome post by the new Deputy Editor Introduction and summary In the recent Anesco case, the ECJ held the preliminary request of the Spanish National Commission on Markets and Competition (CNMC) inadmissible due to the fact that the CNMC was not a ‘court or tribunal’ for the purpose of Article 267 TFEU. The ECJ…

European Court of Justice, European Union, Restriction by object

(Szecskay Attorneys-at-Law, Hungary)/ /1 Comment

    Sisyphus was a Greek mythological figure who was condemned to roll an immense boulder up a hill only for it to roll down every time it neared the top. Repeating this action for eternity. The quest for a clear and operational methodology for finding a restriction of competition ‘by object’ feels similar sometimes….

European Court of Justice, European Union, Gun jumping, Mergers

, (Dentons)/ /Leave a comment

There has been an important milestone in the search for more legal certainty in gun-jumping cases: On September 26, 2019, Advocate General (AG) Tanchev issued his opinion in the Marine Harvest case (C-10/18 P) and recommended that the European Court of Justice (CoJ) partially annul Marine Harvest’s gun-jumping fine. Below we take a look at…

European Court of Justice, European Union, Restriction by effect, Restriction by object

, (Dentons)/ /Leave a comment

On September 5, 2019, Advocate General Bobek published his opinion in the Budapest Bank case (C-228/18). The opinion provides very clear and practical guidance on the concept of restriction of competition by object – a subject that has long been a bone of contention among competition practitioners, enforcers and courts. The opinion is also noteworthy…