The Netherlands Authority for the Consumer and Markets’ (“ACM“) announced focus on drug price developments has finally come to a tangible enforcement result: a fine of almost EUR 20 million imposed on Leadiant, manufacturer of the orphan drug CDCA-Leadiant. This penalty decision follows the announcement by the ACM in 2018, repeated in2020 and 2021, that…

On 24th January 2021, the Competition Commission of India (‘CCI’) joined an exclusive club of competition law regulators around the world to initiate action in the area of privacy and competition law. The CCI passed a suo moto order directing an investigation into Whatsapp for alleged abuse of dominance as per the Competition Act, 2002…

On May 27, 2021, the Commercial Court of Moscow City backed the Federal Antimonopoly Services of Russia (FAS) in a case against HeadHunter, a platform that provides a job search service in Russia. HeadHunter had blocked clients from using the program Robot Vera from its competitor Stafori to automate recruitment services. Instead, HeadHunter offered its…

Back in April 2017, The Times ran a story detailing how a drug giant had a “secret plan” to destroy a cancer medicine unless large price rises were agreed to by national purchasing authorities.  A month later, the European Commission opened an investigation into Aspen.  Almost four years later in February 2021, it accepted commitments…

In my second post on matters related to the DMA Proposal (see for another post here), I would like to draw the readers’ attention to the role of the Court of Justice. I am not going to touch upon potential challenges of the DMA or questions of judicial review of acts taken by the Commission…

On 10 April 2021, the State Administration for Market Regulation (SAMR), China’s competition authority responsible for the enforcement of the Anti-Monopoly Law (AML), announced the imposition of CNY 18 billion fine on Alibaba for abusing its dominant position on the e-commerce platform services market. The decision concludes the investigation launched at the end of 2020…

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…

On March 4, 2021, the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation (the Court) issued its first Guidance for Courts, the so-called Plenum, which specifically concerned competition law. The guidance wants to ensure uniformity of practice in the application of Russia’s competition law, the so-called Antimonopoly Law. Already in 2008, the former Supreme Commercial Court of…

On 24 March 2021 the Higher Regional Court (‘Oberlandesgericht’) of Düsseldorf put yet another twist to the ‘Facebook Saga’. Although the formal written submission is not yet available, the Düsseldorf closed the hearing by staying the proceedings and announcing the referral to the CJEU of questions on data protection law.   Pricing Guns To be…

The recent judgment of the Court of Justice of the EU (“the CJEU”) in Slovak Telekom[1] is a judgment with significant implications.  This article, first, summarises the main lessons from Slovak Telecom as regards the indispensability criterion in cases of refusal to supply competitors by dominant companies and, second, speculates on some likely consequences for…