European Union

Competition proceedings, European Court of Human Rights, European Court of Justice, European Union, Evidence, Witness

(Latham & Watkins LLP)/ /Leave a comment

On 22 October 2020, the European Court of Justice (ECJ) confirmed in Silver Plastics that the General Court (GC) is not bound to accept a request for the examination of witnesses when it has sufficiently proven that an undertaking took part in an anti-competitive agreement.   Executive Summary The ECJ has confirmed that there is…

Competition proceedings, European Court of Justice, European Union, Facebook, Fundamental rights, General Court of the European Union, Investigations, Privacy, Request for information (RFI)

(Clifford Chance LLP, Belgium) and (Clifford Chance LLP, Italy)/ /Leave a comment

In the context of ongoing antitrust investigations into Facebook Inc.’s (‘Facebook’) data-related practices (AT.40628) and Facebook marketplace (AT.40684), on 13 March 2020 the European Commission (‘Commission’) issued two formal requests for information (‘RFIs’), requiring the company to produce a large number of internal documents. Facebook challenged the RFIs before the General Court of the European…

Consultation, Digital economy, European Commission, European Union, VBER, Vertical agreements, Vertical restraints

(White & Case, Belgium) and , (Latham & Watkins LLP)/ /Leave a comment

On 23 October 2020, the European Commission (EC) published its inception impact assessment of policy options for a potential revision of the EU Vertical Block Exemption Regulation (VBER) and accompanying Vertical Guidelines for consultation. This inception impact assessment will be followed by a more detailed impact assessment that the EC will publish for public consultation…

Digital markets, Digital Services Act, European Commission, European Union, New Competition Tool, Platforms

(Loyens & Loeff, Netherlands) and , (Loyens & Loeff)/ /Leave a comment

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…

Commitments, European Commission, European Union, Excessive pricing, Pharmaceuticals

(DLA Piper Belgium), (DLA Piper Romania), (DLA Piper Ireland), and (DLA Piper Denmark)/ /Leave a comment

What are commitments? The recent effort by the Commission to settle the Aspen case suggests that commitment decisions are the preferred route to settle complex excessive pricing cases at EU-level.  Previous commitment cases where high prices have been at issue include Rambus, Standard & Poor’s and Gazprom.  The EU rules allow the Commission to make…

COVID-19, European Union, State aid, Temporary Framework

(Kirkland & Ellis)/ /Leave a comment

On 13 October 2020, the European Commission (“EC”) adopted a fourth amendment to the Temporary Framework of 19 March 2020 (“Temporary Framework”). This amendment builds on the previous three amendments to the Temporary Framework of 3 April 2020 (see our blog post), 8 May 2020 (see our blog post) and 29 June 2020 (see our blog post). The…

European Union, General Court of the European Union, Joint ventures, Market definition, Merger control, Remedies, Turnover thresholds

(Latham & Watkins LLP)/ /1 Comment

The judgment provides useful jurisdictional clarifications for deals involving joint ventures (JVs) acting as an acquirer. The General Court (GC) confirms that when the true players behind the transaction are the parent companies, rather than the JV — because they did the deal valuation, negotiated the transaction structure, and determined the purchase price — the…

European Commission, European Union, Subsidies, White Paper

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

The public consultation for the European Commission’s White Paper on Foreign Subsidies closed on September 23 this year. Perfect timing to discuss the stakeholders’ feedback. Wolters Kluwer therefore organized a webinar on October 8, 2020, involving leading experts from the Commission, WTO, OECD, and private practice: Eddy De Smijter, Head of the International Relations Unit…

Apple, European Union, State aid, Taxation

(Stockholm University)/ /Leave a comment

The General Court’s awaited ruling in the Apple[1] case contains some surprising parts, and it is not easily reconciled with case law from this Court and from the Court of Justice. But as in the Fiat[2] and Starbucks[3] cases, it reveals an impressive effort to analyse the issues at depth. The facts are described in…

COVID-19, European Commission, European Union, Private investment, Start-up, State aid, Temporary Framework

(Kirkland & Ellis, Belgium) and , (Kirkland & Ellis)/ /Leave a comment

On 29 June 2020, the European Commission (“EC”) adopted a third amendment to the Temporary Framework of 19 March 2020 (“Temporary Framework”) to extend the options available to Member State governments seeking to support their economies further. Specifically, the assistance covers aid for smaller companies as well as means of encouraging additional investment from the…