Advocate General

Abuse of dominance, Advertising, Advocate General, Digital, Digital competition, Digital economy, Digital Markets Act, Enforcement, European Court of Justice, Facebook, Germany, References for a preliminary ruling

(University Villanueva, Spain)/ /2 Comments

On 4 July 2023, the Court of Justice resolved the conundrum around the potential interaction between data protection regulation and competition law following the legal opera that started in 2019 with the German competition authority’s case against Facebook/Meta’s processing activities (for a summary of the case, see here). The ruling hops onto Advocate General Rantos’…

Advocate General, Gun jumping, Merger control, Merger regulation, Mergers

, (White & Case) and (White & Case, Belgium)/ /2 Comments

Advocate General Anthony Michael Collins has proposed that the European Court of Justice upheld the General Court’s Altice judgment. In his Opinion, he considered that entering into certain types of pre-closing covenants by an acquirer may constitute gun-jumping, regardless of the absence of the transfer of shares. AG Collins emphasised the importance of deterrence when…

Abuse of dominance, Advocate General, European Court of Justice, Ex ante regulation, Judicial review, Merger control, Merger notification, Merger Thresholds, Mergers

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The long-awaited European Court of Justice’s judgment in Towercast confirmed that national competition authorities (and national courts) can apply abuse of dominance rules to mergers that did not trigger EU and national merger control thresholds and were not referred to the European Commission under Article 22 of the EU Merger Regulation. However, uncertainties still remain….

Advocate General, Fundamental rights, References for a preliminary ruling, Regulation

(Backer McKenzie)/ /Leave a comment

“In many places across the European Union, suppliers of taxi services have traditionally been shielded from competition thanks to State regulation, while web-based platforms have started offering local passenger transport-on-demand services with a high degree of zeal, precision and efficiency”. The previous statement was one of the opening lines of the Opinion issued by Advocate…

Advocate General, European Union, Sport

(Universität Düsseldorf) and (Wirtschaftsuniversität Wien, AKELA)/ /1 Comment

By now the issues surrounding the Super League need no further introduction. On the one hand, there are monopolists that potentially abuse their dominant position, whereas, on the other hand, there is a controversial collective of clubs, seeking to change or expand Europe’s current football offering. Consequently, the ECJ’s ruling may shape Europe’s sports sector…

Abuse of dominance, Advocate General, European Court of Justice, Four-to-three Merger, General Court of the European Union, Guidelines, Horizontal, Judicial review, Merger control, Merger notification, Merger Thresholds

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Advocate General Kokott has found [1] that the General Court erred in law in requiring the European Commission to show anti-competitive effects of a merger with “strong probability” and that the scope of its judicial review was overly broad, notably in relation to economic evidence.   Key takeaways This case will give the Court of…

Abuse of dominance, Advocate General, European Court of Justice, European Union, Merger control, Merger Thresholds, Mergers

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Advocate General Juliane Kokott has proposed that the EU Court of Justice should find that competition authorities have the power to apply Article 102 TFEU to corporate transactions that are not reportable and test under that provision whether the transaction as such constitutes an abuse of a dominant position. However, a competition authority cannot in…

Abuse of dominance, Advocate General, European Court of Justice, Facebook, Privacy

(University Villanueva, Spain)/ /Leave a comment

On 20 September 2022, Advocate General Rantos delivers his Opinion on the much-awaited Case C-252/21 (Meta Platforms v. Bundeskartellamt). Bearing in mind the Opinion intends to pave the way for the European Court of Justice (ECJ) regarding the interpretation of the GDPR, the text resonates with competition law and its interpretation in the display online…

Abuse of dominance, Advocate General, European Court of Justice, European Union, Railway, Regulation

(bpv Hügel)/ /Leave a comment

In 2017 the ECJ decided in its CTL Logistics judgment (C‑489/15, CTL Logistics, ECLI:EU:C:2017:834) that national civil courts must not examine railway charges if they fall under the competence of a railway regulator under Directive 2001/14/EC (now Directive 2012/34/EU) under equity (§ 315 German Civil Code, “BGB”). AG Ćapeta recently suggested reconsidering this case law…

Advocate General, Damages, Disclosure, European Court of Justice, Evidence, Private actions, Private enforcement

(Latham & Watkins LLP) and (University of Vienna, Austria)/ /Leave a comment

Recent posts on this blog (here) have already highlighted the role that the adoption of Directive 2014/104/EU (Damages Directive or Directive) and the European Commission’s (EC) decision in case AT.39824 – Trucks, amongst other events, have played as turning points in private enforcement of competition law in the EU. The Directive has led not only…