Introduction Following the CJEU Illumina/Grail ruling the case here is made for the Commission to negotiate with the national competition authorities (NCAs) to adopt a common approach to dealing with so-called ‘killer acquisitions’ both substantively and procedurally. The concept here would be for the Commission and the NCAs to negotiate a common network notice which…
Executive Vice President Vestager’s momentous tenure as Commissioner responsible for EU competition policy is nearing its end. EVP Vestager will leave her successor with a full agenda, including the first full-scale revamp of the Commission’s basic antitrust procedural rules in over 20 years, finalizing the controversial guidelines on exclusionary abuses under Article 102 TFEU and…
Introduction There have been some exciting developments in Turkish competition law recently, not least of which was the Turkish Competition Board’s (“Board”) first-ever judgment on non-compliance with commitments. To recap, the Board approved the merger between Luxottica Group S.p.A. and Essilor International S.A. back in 2018, subject to behavioural and structural commitments. To review the…
Background On 24 May 2024, royal assent was granted to the UK Parliament’s Digital Markets Competition and Consumers Act (“DMCC”) (available here), a year after the Bill was first introduced to Parliament. The DMCC brings the most significant reforms to UK competition and consumer law in two decades, enhancing the existing powers of the Competition…
Introduction The Civil Chamber of the Spanish Supreme Court has already issued forty judgments ruling on appeals against judgments of the Courts of Appeal on claims for damages caused by the truck cartel. The Courts of Appeal have now handed down 4315 rulings on compensation for more than 25,000 cartelized trucks, 95% of them (partially)…
Malta’s Office for Competition (“the Office”) has issued a press release, noting that on the 18 September 2024, it issued a decision prohibiting the acquisition by Lidl Immobiliare Malta Limited (“Lidl”) of property owned by Said Investments Limited and leases belonging to another major supermarket chain on the island (“Scott’s”) bringing a tentative end to…
Introduction In the past two years, the Czech Competition Authority (CCA) added several new tools to its arsenal for competition enforcement. This year the CCA and the Government of the Czech Republic proposed another significant set of updates to the Czech Act No. 143/2001 Coll., on the Protection of Competition (the Act). Arguably, the most…
Introduction Last week, Advocate General Maciej Szpunar delivered his Opinion in case C-253/23, a preliminary reference that stems from a form of collective private enforcement of competition law in Germany called the ‘assignment model’. This type of litigation is based on the fiduciary assignment of claims from a high number of persons or companies who…
Introduction Competition law is a fundamental component of market regulation designed to prevent anti-competitive practices that can harm both consumers and the overall market structure. Traditionally, these laws have focused on agreements between competitors in specific industries. However, recent developments have extended the reach of competition law into labour markets, where violations can have equally…
On April 24, 2024, the German Federal Court of Justice (FCJ) rejected Amazon’s appeal against the decision of the Federal Cartel Office (FCO) of July 2022, designating Amazon as a gatekeeper under national competition law, Section 19a ARC. The ruling clarifies important aspects of this provision designed to capture large digital companies (see translation of…
