On 18 May 2022, the EU General Court (the “GC”) upheld the European Commission’s (the “EC”) €28 million fine imposed on Canon for gun-jumping in the context of a (somewhat unique) so-called warehousing structure. The judgment confirms that structures such as the one at issue are not allowed under EU law without an express derogation…
On 24 February 2022, the Parliament of Ukraine, in connection with the large-scale military aggression of the Russian Federation against Ukraine, approved a decree of the President of Ukraine on the imposition of martial law in the country. The military aggression has significantly affected the activities of most public authorities in Ukraine, including the Ukrainian…
Exactly one year after the European Commission (Commission) proposed the Anti-Subsidy Regulation (the Regulation) (discussed on KCLB already here and here), on May 5, 2022, EU legislators launched their “trilogue” negotiations to reach an agreement on the final text. The Regulation is a global first. It combines elements of traditional merger control, EU State aid review…
In February 2022, Canada’s Minister of Innovation, Science and Economic Development announced that the Canadian government was evaluating ways to improve the operation of Canada’s Competition Act (Act). The Minister said that changes would be made in multiple stages, with some initial amendments to be proposed in the following months that would have “an immediate…
One of the purposes of the South African Competition Act is stated in the Act to be to “promote a greater spread of ownership, in particular, to increase the ownership stakes of historically disadvantaged persons”. The term “historically disadvantaged persons” (“HDPs”) is effectively defined in the Act as non-white South Africans and firms which are…
On 24 February 2022, Russia invaded the territory of Ukraine and triggered the largest European war since 1945. The war has led to unprecedented loss of human lives and the biggest refugee crisis since World Word II, according to the UNHCR. At this stage, the economic impact of the war is difficult to predict. Some…
The following is a selection of some of the most important developments in German competition law and policy in 2021. It has been a busy year for the Federal Cartel Office (“FCO”), inter alia because the new rules for digital companies took effect. The following covers cases under these new rules, abuse of dominance, merger…
We are happy to announce the new International Law Talk Podcast episode on the interrelations between merger control, FDI, subsidy control & EU trade law. In the episode, I discuss with competition and trade experts and my former colleagues François-Charles Laprévote and Wanjie Lin from Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton LLP. We focus on the…
The Indian antitrust landscape has recently shifted its focus to the regulation of digital markets. To achieve this end, substantial changes to the country’s merger control mechanisms were proposed in the Competition (Amendment) Bill, 2020 (the Amendment/the Bill). One of the central purposes of these amendments is to prospectively analyse mergers and acquisitions that may…
On 18 November 2021, the China competition authority State Administration for Market Regulation (“SAMR”) released the decision that the acquisition of Illinois Tool Works Inc. (”ITW“) over MTS Systems Corporation (“MTS”) is conditionally approved (the “Decision”) [1]. It is the third merger case cleared with remedies by the SAMR in 2021. But what is eye-catching…
