Assimakis Komninos, Author at Kluwer Competition Law Blog

European Court of Justice, Patent settlements, Pharmaceuticals, Restriction by object

The ECJ’s Lundbeck judgment offers little new on patent settlements but gives birth to an interesting principle: sector inquiries give rise to a duty of diligence

Jérémie Jourdan, James Killick, Assimakis Komninos, Tilman Kuhn (White & Case) and Peter Citron (Editor) (White & Case, Belgium)/March 26, 2021March 26, 2021 /Leave a comment

On 25 March 2021, the European Court of Justice (“ECJ”) dismissed all the appeals against the European Commission’s decision to fine Lundbeck and several other companies for entering into anti-competitive patent settlement agreements.1 The judgments largely repeat the position taken by the ECJ in its January 2020 Paroxetine judgment (see our alert). They notably confirm…

Digital competition, European Commission, European Union, Ex ante regulation, Market investigations, Structural competition problems

The European Commission eyes the addition of a market investigation tool to its 60-year-old toolbox – but is it a chisel or a sledgehammer?

Assimakis Komninos, Mark Powell, Marc Israel, James Killick, Jacquelyn MacLennan, Kate Kelliher (White & Case)/June 5, 2020June 5, 2020 /Leave a comment

On 2 June 2020, the European Commission published its roadmap on the possible introduction of a ‘new competition tool’ that would allow it to initiate market investigations into perceived structural competition problems, with the ability to impose market-wide remedies on companies. The proposal has obvious parallels to the market investigation tools already in place in…

Abuse of dominance, Excessive pricing, United Kingdom

Authorities have to consider different types of evidence. The UK Court of Appeal broadly upholds the CAT’s judgment in Phenytoin and clarifies “excessive pricing” test

James Killick, Assimakis Komninos (White & Case)/April 2, 2020April 2, 2020 /Leave a comment

Summary On 10 March 2020 the Court of Appeal upheld the Competition Appeal Tribunal’s (CAT) quashing of the Competition and Markets Authority’s (CMA) decision that Pfizer and Flynn Pharma (Flynn) had abused their dominant positions in the market by pricing their epilepsy drug unfairly. Among other aspects, the Court of Appeal broadly upheld the CAT’s…

Abuse of dominance, Effects-based, United Kingdom

The CMA Remicade decision: discount schemes and abuse of dominance – effects matter!

James Killick, Assimakis Komninos, Strati Sakellariou-Witt, Axel Schulz (White & Case)/March 28, 2019March 28, 2019 /Leave a comment

Summary On 14 March 2019, the UK Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) decided to close its investigation into a discount scheme by Merck Sharp & Dohme Limited (MSD).[1] The CMA concluded that there were no grounds for it to take action, since MSD’s discount strategy was not likely to limit competition in anticipation of the…

Economics, European Court of Justice, European Union, Mergers

EU Court confirms the need for transparency and full disclosure of economic analyses in EU merger cases (UPS/TNT)

James Killick, Assimakis Komninos (White & Case)/January 22, 2019January 22, 2019 /Leave a comment

On 16 January 2019, the Court of Justice of the European Union (“CJEU” or “Court”) dismissed the European Commission’s appeal against the annulment of its decision to prohibit the acquisition of TNT by UPS. The CJEU stressed the importance of respecting companies’ rights of defence as regards economic analysis and methodology used in merger control….

Brexit, European Union, United Kingdom

Brexit and competition law

Assimakis Komninos (White & Case)/May 20, 2016June 30, 2016 /1 Comment

A “leave” vote in the UK referendum on 23 June 2016 would have a number of repercussions. Competition law is not one of these areas where these repercussions are going to be dramatic, but still a few things both at the UK and at the whole of the (remaining) EU would be different. No major…