European Commission

Competition policy, Digital, Digital competition, Digital economy, Digital markets, Digital Markets Act, European Commission, Ex ante regulation

(University Villanueva, Spain)/ /Leave a comment

On 9 October 2023, the European Commission (EC) issued four templates on its official website pertaining to the Digital Markets Act (DMA). Each of them deals with a different provision enshrined in the regulatory framework. First of all, the European Commission published its updated Template for Reporting pursuant to Article 11 of the DMA following…

Abuse of dominance, Data protection, Digital, Digital competition, Digital economy, Digital markets, Digital Markets Act, European Commission, European Court of Justice, Germany, Google, National competition authorities (NCAs)

(University Villanueva, Spain)/ /Leave a comment

On 5 October 2023, the German competition authority adopted its first tangible evidence of enforcement surrounding its new competition rules (Section 19a GWB) directed at undertakings with paramount significance for competition across markets on its case against Google for its data processing terms (see the Bundeskartellamt’s decision designating Alphabet here and a previous comment on…

Abuse of dominance, Advantage, Advertising, App stores, Apple, Digital economy, Digital markets, Digital Markets Act, Digital Services Act, European Commission, European Union, Ex ante regulation, Facebook

(University Villanueva, Spain)/ /Leave a comment

The wheels of the DMA have started turning and so have the International Law Talk episodes. I had the pleasure to interview Assimakis Komninos following the Commission’s press release establishing the economic operators that it had designated as gatekeepers under the DMA. This triggering event gave us the excuse to talk about a range of…

Abuse of dominance, Cybersecurity, European Commission, European Union, Innovation, Tying and Bundling

(University of Bremen)/ /Leave a comment

After the rumor mill had been bubbling for weeks in advance, it became official at the end of July 2023: the European Commission announced on its website the initiation of official antitrust proceedings against the US software giant Microsoft due to possible anti-competitive behaviour in relation to Microsoft Teams. The legal background of the EU…

Abuse of dominance, Commitments, Effects-based, European Commission, European Union, Investigations, Market definition, Tying and Bundling, Unfair trading practices

(Leiden University)/ /Leave a comment

Factual background During the summer of 2020, news came out about a claim made by Slack against Microsoft for abusing its dominance by tying Teams to the Microsoft and Office 365 software packages. The claim at the time was that Microsoft had been forcing millions of users to install Teams and denied them the possibility…

European Commission, Ex ante regulation, Financial markets

, (KU Leuven)/ /Leave a comment

Introduction On 28 June 2023, the European Commission announced the long-awaited Single Currency Package which consists of two Regulation proposals. The first proposed Legal Tender Cash Regulation (Regulation on the legal tender of euro banknotes and coins) aims to preserve the effectiveness of the legal tender status of euro-denominated cash. The second proposed Digital Euro…

European Commission, European Union, Foreign subsidies, Foreign Subsidy Regulation, Merger notification, Mergers

, , , , , , , , , (White & Case)/ /Leave a comment

The EU Foreign Subsidies Regulation took effect on 12 July 2023 to much fanfare. We take a look at the top five things PE funds need to know when considering acquisitions with a European footprint. The Foreign Subsidies Regulation (“FSR”) is the European Commission’s attempt to level the playing field for M&A deals by creating…

European Commission, European Union, Foreign subsidies, Foreign Subsidy Regulation, State aid, United States of America

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

European Union and United States legislators are increasingly concerned about the potentially distortive effects “foreign” subsidies may have on M&A transactions. EU and US authorities are both poised to require transaction parties to provide extensive information to allow authorities to evaluate subsidies granted by other jurisdictions. How do these initiatives compare, and how will the…

Dutch clause, European Commission, Gun jumping, Merger control

, , , , (Simmons & Simmons)/ /Leave a comment

The EC sets the highest possible fine of 10% of revenue on Illumina, and for the first time fines target (Grail), for gun-jumping, setting a precedent. On 12 July 2023, the European Commission imposed a fine of €432 million on Illumina (and €1,000 on Grail) for having implemented their merger before approval by the European…

Abuse of dominance, Concentrations, Digital, Digital competition, Digital economy, Digital markets, Digital Markets Act, Dutch clause, European Commission, Ex ante regulation, Merger control, Merger notification, National competition authorities (NCAs), Platforms

(University Villanueva, Spain)/ /Leave a comment

On 14 July 2023, the European Commission launched its second template relating to the gatekeeper’s compliance with Article 14 of the DMA (the Template), i.e., their obligation to inform about any intended concentration involving core platform services or any other services in the digital sector or enabling the collection of data (Article 14(1) of the…