Abuse of dominance, Advertising, Algorithms, Apple, Big data, Data protection, Digital economy, Digital Markets Act, Digital Services Act, E-commerce, European Union, Facebook, France, Google, Online advertising, Online advertising restrictions, Online platforms, Platforms

(BEUC, the European Consumer Organisation) and (University of Vienna, Austria)/ /2 Comments

Recently, Google and Apple have changed their policy for targeted online advertising. Privacy-conscious users have been switching to alternatives for years, however, completely avoiding being tracked by online tech giants is virtually impossible. Nevertheless, the online ad industry has grown tremendously in the last decade, and targeted behavioural advertising has become ubiquitous in the online…

Duty to state reasons, Equal treatment, European Court of Human Rights, European Court of Justice, Fundamental rights, Hybrid Settlement, Presumption of Innocence, Settlement

(University of Vienna, Austria) and (Max Planck Institute Luxembourg)/ /1 Comment

On March 18, 2021, in a hybrid settlement case, the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) partially annulled the judgment of the General Court of the European Union (GC) for violating the obligation to state reasons and the principle of equal treatment in the calculation of the fine. The CJEU compared the situation…

Advantage, European Court of Justice, European Union, State aid, Tax, Taxation

(Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton LLP) and (University of Vienna, Austria)/ /Leave a comment

On March 4, 2021, the Court of Justice (‘CJEU’) delivered a judgment in the State aid case Fútbol Club Barcelona (C-362/19 P), quashing the ruling of the General Court of February 26, 2019 (T-865/16) and upholding the Commission’s Decision of July 3, 2016 (SA.29769). In its judgment, the CJEU provided helpful guidance to assess the…

Brexit, Foreign direct investment, Merger control, Merger Thresholds, Mergers, Podcast

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

We are continuing with our competition law issues of the International Law Talk Podcast. Two weeks ago, I talked to Oliver Bretz, founding partner at Euclid Law and a merger expert, about the fragmentation of EU merger control. We focused particularly on the changes in the EU one-stop-systems through Brexit, the increasing use of EU…

Competition law, European Court of Justice, European Union, Parental liability

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

In today’s judgment in the case C‑595/18 P – Goldman Sachs v Commission, the European Court of Justice (ECJ or Court) expanded the rebuttable presumption of decisive influence relating to the parental liability doctrine. According to the parental liability doctrine, a parent company can be liable for anti-competitive conduct of its subsidiary when the parent…

Algorithms, Digital economy, Digital markets, Digital Markets Act, Digital Services Act, Intellectual property (IP), International Law Talk, Online platforms, Platforms, Podcast

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

The Kluwer Competition Law Blog is very happy to announce the first competition law issue of the International Law Talk Podcast. Just before Christmas, I talked to Gabriella Muscolo, Commissioner of the Italian Competition Authority, a specialist for big data, IP and competition law. We covered the whole bandwidth of big data and competition law,…

Competition Law 2020, European Union

(University of Vienna, Austria)/ /1 Comment

What an eventful year, also for competition law. The Kluwer Competition Law Blog has a little treat for you: a series of posts on the main 2020 developments in key jurisdictions by many of our dear contributors. We will release a number of articles in the next month. Today, we kick off with the EU!…

Damages, European Commission, European Union, Private enforcement

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

Ever since the 2001 Courage judgment, private actions for damages are on the rise. The Commission wanted to quickly follow with a legislative act including minimum standards for private enforcement across the EU. In the end, it took a while. In 2005, the authority published a Green Paper, in 2008 a substantially amended White Paper….

Commitments, European Court of Justice, European Union, Proportionality

(University of Vienna, Austria)/ /2 Comments

Today, the Court of Justice annulled the Commission decision that made commitments legally binding for Paramount. This decision is the first annulment of a commitment decision since the adoption of Regulation 1/2003. The Court held, in particular, that the Commission must assess the proportionality of the commitments with regard to the protection of the contractual…

Amazon, Apple, Brand Gating, Digital economy, Germany, Self-preferencing

(University of Vienna, Austria)/ /4 Comments

The German Federal Cartel Authority continues its campaign against tech-giants by once again launching a probe into Amazon. This time, Amazon is not the only company affected. The authority also takes a closer look at Apple. Amazon has contracts with Apple, according to which only Apple dealerships and Amazon can offer Apple products on the…