A NEW COMMISSIONER OF COMPETITION FOR CANADA The year just ended witnessed a changing of the guard at Canada’s Competition Bureau, with Melanie Aitken resigning as Commissioner of Competition in September 2012. Ms. Aitken was replaced on an interim basis by John Pecman, a seasoned Bureau veteran with over 28 years of enforcement experience. It…
Canada’s first competition legislation was enacted in 1889, with the intention of combatting the price-fixing and other anti-competitive conduct of so-called “combinations”. Trade and professional associations figured prominently among the “combinations” alleged to have engaged in this anti-competitive behaviour. As one observer commented at the time, “there are few branches of trade in this or…
Looking back at 2012 antitrust developments and browsing through this blog, I was surprised not to see any posting on what was in my view a major highlight of the past year, namely the EU Court of Justice (ECJ) judgment in Post Danmark (C-209/10). In a sweet and short judgment (8 pages) issued on March…
The Disputes Microsoft is sued for alleged excessive pricing in China by Guangzhou Kam Hing Textile Dyeing Co., Ltd. (Guangzhou Kam Hing). In March 2012, Microsoft sued Guangzhou Kam Hing in the Nansha District People’s Court (Nansha Court) for using pirated Microsoft software. According to the news report, the Hong Kong parent company of Guangzhou…
On 6 December 2012, the EU Court of Justice handed down judgment in the long-running AstraZeneca litigation. Practitioners hoping for an opinion that tempered some of the more extreme dicta of the General Court found a more measured judgment. The Court upheld the General Court’s judgment in its entirety. But it refrains from endorsing the…
The EU’s General Court issued on 14 November two important judgments regarding the extent of the European Commission’s powers to dawn raid companies for suspected competition law infringements (Case T-135/09 Nexans v Commission and Case T-140/09 Prysmian v Commission). The Court held that the European Commission must precisely delimit the products concerned by a dawn…
Many new economic analysis tools have been introduced, particularly for merger analysis during the last decade. Some of these tools have also raised considerable public interest. For instance, probably not many have avoided hearing of the UPP test, and undoubtedly many are already familiar with the meaning of the abbreviations GUPPI, IPR and CMCR. The…
The Goals of Antitrust in the Wake of Crisis Calls for a re-appreciation of competition policy have never ceased on both sides of the Atlantic. However, the current financial crisis has unsurprisingly provided a particular backdrop against which there has been increased willingness to discuss so-called “fundamental” issues both within as well as across different…
Switzerland and the European Union are about to conclude a Cooperation Agreement in the field of competition law. This new Cooperation Agreement goes beyond the previous cooperation agreements of the EU with other jurisdictions. It will enable the Swiss and EU Competition authorities to closely coordinate their enforcement activities and in particular to exchange protected…
One of the main concerns raised by the decentralization of EU competition law enforcement related to the risk of different competition authorities prosecuting and sanctioning the same cross-border anticompetitive practice, in breach of the ne bis in idem principle (protection against double jeopardy, as provided for by Art. 50 of the EU Charter of Fundamental…
