European Commission

Art. 22, European Commission, Guidance, Innovation, Market definition, Merger control, Merger regulation, Merger Thresholds, Sustainability

(Norton Rose Fulbright, Belgium)/ /Leave a comment

Many of the most challenging transactions reviewed under the EU Merger Regulation (EUMR) in recent years involved their likely effects on non-price competitive factors: innovation; quality and product differentiation; data protection and privacy; sustainability; and capacity and reliability of supply.  These topics are discussed briefly, or not at all, in the Commission’s guidelines on the…

Apple, Designation Decision, Digital, Digital competition, Digital economy, Digital markets, Digital Markets Act, European Commission

(University Villanueva, Spain)/ /Leave a comment

The DMA seeks to capture gatekeeper conduct. For that, the regulation applies to those targets of the regulation satisfying the legal category of a gatekeeper. If an undertaking is not a gatekeeper as per a designation decision issued by the European Commission (EC), then it will not remain captured by the regulatory instrument. In September…

Digital, Digital competition, Digital economy, Digital markets, Digital Markets Act, European Commission, European Union

(University Villanueva, Spain)/ /Leave a comment

The Digital Markets Act (DMA) entails a change in the narrative of the punitive framework applied to digital dominant undertakings under EU competition law. At least, that’s what the European’s digital strategy proposed it to be. The failure of antitrust followed a new paradigm in applying per se rules to gatekeepers, based on cooperative-like mechanisms…

European Commission, European Union, Labour market, No-poach-agreement, Restriction by object

(ZESA Attorney Partnership)/ /Leave a comment

On 3 May, the EC published a policy brief on labor markets. The existing legal framework allows the EC and EU national competition authorities to take decisive action against anticompetitive agreements in labor markets. Wage-fixing and no-poach agreements are detrimental to competition in labor markets and should generally be qualified as restrictions by object. Wage-fixing…

Austria, Competition proceedings, Confidentiality, Damages, Digital, Digital competition, Digital economy, Digital markets, Digital Markets Act, Digitisation, Disclosure, Enforcement, European Commission, Evidence, Germany, National competition authorities (NCAs), Procedures, Proportionality, Regulation

(University of Vienna, Austria) and (University of Vienna)/ /Leave a comment

The Digital Markets Act (DMA) introduced an innovative framework aimed at promoting contestability and fairness in digital markets. In addition to imposing a multitude of substantial obligations on gatekeepers, the DMA incorporates a sophisticated and multi-faceted enforcement system. The European Commission assumes the primary role as the enforcer of the DMA, while the Member States…

China, European Champions, European Commission, Foreign subsidies, Foreign Subsidy Regulation

(Stibbe)/ /Leave a comment

The FSR and public procurement The primary objective of the Foreign Subsidies Regulation (FSR) is to address the influence of foreign subsidies that may distort the integrity of the EU’s internal market. This encompasses scenarios where recipients gain an unfair advantage enabling them to secure public procurement contracts within the EU at the expense of…

Apps, Designation Decision, Digital, Digital competition, Digital economy, Digital markets, Digital Markets Act, Enforcement, Equal treatment, European Commission, Fair, reasonable and non-discriminatory (FRAND), Google, Self-preferencing

(University Villanueva, Spain)/ /2 Comments

The Digital Markets Act (DMA) became entirely applicable on 7 March 2024. By then, the gatekeepers issued their compliance reports documenting their technical solutions and implementation of the DMA’s provisions under Article 11 DMA as well as their reports on consumer profiling techniques as required under Article 15 DMA (see here). I will be covering…

App stores, Apple, Designation Decision, Digital, Digital competition, Digital economy, Digital markets, Digital Markets Act, European Commission

(University Villanueva, Spain)/ /Leave a comment

The Digital Markets Act (DMA) became entirely applicable on 7 March 2024. By then, the gatekeepers issued their compliance reports documenting their technical solutions and implementation of the DMA’s provisions under Article 11 DMA as well as their reports on consumer profiling techniques as required under Article 15 DMA (see here). During the following week,…

App stores, Apple, Digital competition, Digital economy, Digital markets, Digital Markets Act, European Commission, Fines, Proportionality, Unfair trading practices

(Leiden University)/ /Leave a comment

After almost three years since the Commission sent Apple its statement of objections, which was significantly trimmed down, the Commission reached a finding of abuse for which it imposed a whopping fine of 1.8 billion euros. Alongside this case, Apple was also involved in an almost identical case running parallel in the Netherlands, with similar…

European Commission, European Union, Foreign direct investment, Legislation

(Norton Rose Fulbright, Belgium)/ /Leave a comment

What a difference five years make. In 2019, the European Union (EU) created a modest common framework for foreign direct investment (FDI) screening, Regulation 2019/452 (the FDI Regulation), stressing that decisions on proposed investments, and even the decision whether to engage in FDI screening at all, remained with EU Member States. A pandemic and two…