The current policy debate The European Commission will table two main legislative proposals on digital platforms: the Digital Markets Act (DMA) with new rules regarding the behaviour of gatekeeper platforms in competition, and the Digital Services Act with updated rules on the use of content by platforms, i.e. a reform of the e-commerce-Directive. As, amongst…
The government’s draft for new competition rules, including on (digital) platforms, published in September 2020 (see here) includes a provision specifically aimed at powerful digital gatekeepers, draft Section 19a ARC. The proposal was debated in parliament on November 25, 2020, is largely expected to be adopted more or less in its current form and to…
After two rounds of public consultations that ended 8 September 2020, the European Commission (‘Commission’) appears to be on track and make its proposals for new enforcement powers more concrete. The Commission intends to adopt its two definitive legislative proposals before the end of 2020. In this post, we take a look at where the…
Introduction On 20 May 2020 the Dutch competition authority (“ACM”) conditionally cleared a new joint venture between transport company Pon Netherlands B.V. (“Pon”) and Dutch rail operator NS Groep N.V. (“NS”) creating a Mobility as a Service (“MaaS”) platform. The case was referred to the ACM by the European Commission (“Commission”) under Article 9 of…
The Davies Forecast of Top 5 Trends and Issues for Canadian Competition Law in 2020 Jim Dinning, Anita Banicevic and Mark Katz Here is Davies’ annual forecast of Canadian competition law developments for the year ahead. 1. FOCUS ON THE DIGITAL ECONOMY Given the Competition Bureau’s stated priorities during the tenure of current Commissioner of…
Introduction In 2019 several studies have been published and discussions took place about digitalisation, online platforms and competition law. Many of us will probably have read the so-called Crémer, Furman, Stigler, and Lear-reports. The Netherlands did not lag behind. The Dutch government published amongst others a vision on data sharing between businesses and an updated…
Introduction Most Competition Authorities the world-over that are involved in ex-ante or ex-post merger review process use tools that are in some way universally accepted. This is because these tools have been developed and tested over time. Some of these tools include the merger notification thresholds for determining nexus, the market definition tools to determine…
On July 17, 2019, the German Bundeskartellamt (Federal Cartel Office, “FCO”) terminated its dominance probe into Amazon’s business terms towards sellers on its marketplace after Amazon agreed to various changes, see press release here here. Amazon will implement the changes within 30 days, not only in Germany, but for all of its marketplaces in Europe,…
On June 4, 2019, the Düsseldorf Court of Appeal quashed the decision of the Federal Cartel Office (“FCO”) prohibiting Booking.com to operate so-called narrow most favored nation (MFN) clauses (or best price clauses) on its hotel booking platform with hotels in Germany, see press release here. It thereby set a (preliminary) end to a long saga…
After Google has been fined several times for breach of (EU) competition rules the last couple of years, it might now be Apple’s turn. Last month (March 2019), Spotify filed a complaint against Apple with the European Commission. The Dutch Authority for Consumers & Markets (“ACM”) immediately responded by stating that ACM is finalizing its…
