A year of establishing crucial goals and flourishing development The previous year was flourishing and fruitful for the development of competition law in Kazakhstan. According to the annual report of the Agency for the Protection and Development of Competition of the Republic of Kazakhstan (the “Agency”) on the state of competition and measures to limit…

Thank you for another wonderful and eventful year in competition law and policy. In 2022, the ten most read blogposts were: Shamsher Kataria v. Honda Siel Cars India Ltd. – Great End, but Means? by Ayushi Singhal (West Bengal National University of Juridical Sciences) What to consider restrictive by object? by Christian Bergqvist (University of…

Introduction The blockchain industry is undergoing tremendous development and expansion, with new applications and technology constantly appearing. In Hong Kong, blockchain-based industries and activities, such as cryptocurrencies, are gaining popularity and attention. As these industries grow, they must be governed in a manner that fosters competition and protects consumers. Competition law in Hong Kong is…

On September 29th 2022, the Commission published Guidelines on the application of Union competition law to collective agreements regarding the working conditions of solo self-employed persons (hereinafter: the Guidelines). The first draft of this document was released almost a year ago as part of a package including a proposed Directive on platform work. The Guidelines,…

According to Wikipedia, the term “filicide” refers to a deliberate act of a parent killing their own child. As awful as that sounds, in corporate life it is pretty common for undertakings to divest, diminish, or discontinue entire product lines, services, distribution chains, or complementary divisions of work. This is often done as a response…

On 6 May 2021, the European Commission (“Commission”) published its evaluation of the Horizontal Block Exemption Regulations and the Guidelines on Horizontal co-operation agreements (“HGL”) (as reported here). The evaluation indicated that revision and clarity is needed in various areas, inter alia for sustainability agreements. The Dutch Authority for Consumer & Markets (“ACM”) announced on…

On 6 May 2021, the European Commission (“Commission”) published a staff working document (“SWD”) on its evaluation of the horizontal block exemption regulations on research & development and specialisation agreements (“H-BERs”) and the horizontal guidelines. The SWD is accompanied by an evaluation study, commissioned to provide qualitative and quantitative evidence to support the Commission’s evaluation. The findings show…

The law is blind. Competition law, however, has the potential to see through a gender lens. In World Economic Forum’s Global Gender Gap Index 2020, India ranked at 112th position in a list of 153 countries. According to a 2019 survey, the gender pay gap in the country was estimated to stand at 19%, where…

Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) Chair, Rod Sims, has announced the ACCC’s 2021 compliance and enforcement policy and priorities. The focus of the ACCC’s 2021 priorities is reflective of its: continuation of its unfinished “to do” list in a COVID-19 interrupted 2020 enduring/ongoing priorities, such as the prosecution of cartel conduct (with two to…

A February 4 conference on competition policy and the Green Deal sponsored by the European Commission’s (the Commission’s) Directorate-General for Competition (DG COMP) highlighted the divergences of opinions among antitrust officials and other stakeholders on how competition policy should support sustainability objectives.  DG COMP aims to take a leading role on sustainability issues; its October-November…