Europe

Antitrust, Competition, Consumer welfare, Enforcement, Europe, European Commission, European Union, Policy, United States of America

(College of Europe, Belgium)/ /Leave a comment

The proceedings brought by the European Commission against Google are nearing a – provisional – end with the prospect of a decision making binding on Google a revised set of commitments (see here for the Commission statement and here for the full text of the proposed commitments). Independently of their merits in addressing the Commission’s…

Competition, Enforcement, Europe, European Commission, European Union, State aid

(Baker McKenzie, Belgium)/ /Leave a comment

On 8 October 2013, it was announced that the nuclear industry would not be included in the European Commission’s draft Guidelines on environmental and energy aid for 2014-2020 as anticipated. Earlier in the year, a leaked copy of the draft Guidelines (which the author has read) set out six pages on how the Commission would…

Competition, Europe, European Commission, European Union, Mergers

(Baker McKenzie, Belgium)/ /Leave a comment

On 25 June 2013, the European Commission launched a public consultation entitled “Towards more effective EU Merger Control” in which the Commission proposes to (i) expand its powers to review non-controlling minority interests and (ii) streamline the case referral system between the Commission and NCAs. The proposals in respect of minority shareholdings will have a…

Antitrust, Competition, Dominance, Europe, European Commission, European Union

(Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton LLP)/ /1 Comment

Over the last two months, the Commission has been market testing commitments that Google has offered to resolve the Commission’s pending investigation. Many have made thoughtful comments (see for example here, here, and here). But there has also been criticism from the corner of some of Google’s competitors. I represent Google in the Commission’s proceedings…

Competition, Europe, European Commission, European Union, Mergers

(Baker McKenzie, Belgium)/ /Leave a comment

Like the European Commission, I am confident that the European Merger Simplification Project will bring benefits for clients. As many commentators have affirmed, I do not doubt that the increase of the currently applicable market share thresholds for the identification of horizontally and vertically “affected markets” by 5 per cent to 20% and 30% respectively…

Antitrust, Competition, Consumer welfare, Europe, European Commission, European Union, Policy

(RBB Economics)/ /Leave a comment

On 31 January 2013, the European Commission (DG Internal Market) published a Green Paper on unfair trading practices in the business-to-business food and non-food supply chain in Europe. One of the issues that the Green Paper deals with is the use by some suppliers of territorial supply constraints – described as impeding retailers’ ability to…

Antitrust, Cartels, Competition, Dominance, Europe

(WKB Wierciński, Kwieciński, Baehr, Poland)/ /Leave a comment

Shortly after revealing proposed amendments to the Competition and Consumer Protection Act (for details, please see my post from May 22), the Polish Competition Authority (the President of the Office for Protection of Competition and Consumers) published draft guidelines on commitment decisions (“Guidelines”). Since PCA nowadays uses commitment decisions increasingly often (125 such decisions were…

Antitrust, Europe

(Baker McKenzie, Belgium)/ /Leave a comment

In a judgment handed down today (C-158/11 Auto 24), the EU Court of Justice (“CJEU”) confirmed that suppliers operating selective distribution systems (“SDSs”) are under no obligation to publish the criteria used to appoint distributors, and that a car manufacturer using a SDS based on quantitative criteria is under no obligation to apply these criteria…

Antitrust, Competition, Europe, European Union, General

(College of Europe, Belgium)/ /Leave a comment

Cross-border antitrust enforcement issues are back on the agenda. The recent Toshiba judgment of the European Court of Justice (“ECJ”) has confirmed a number of principles governing the network enforcement system set forth in the EU by Regulation 1/2003. Recent national decisions involving the same companies and/or closely related sectors (e.g., the flour milling industry)…

Antitrust, Competition, Dominance, Europe

(Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton LLP)/ /Leave a comment

Steffano Grassani wrote a thoughtful response to my post on the Italian Pfizer decision. His discussion helps to crystallize some of the key issues raised by the case that merit some further consideration. Clearly, Steffano is right that misleading patent authorities is not the only possible patent related abuse. However, it must also be true…