European Union

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…

European Commission, European Union, Subsidies, White Paper

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1.  Overview On 17 June 2020, the European Commission (“EC”) issued a White Paper consulting on “Levelling the Playing Field as regards Foreign Subsidies”. These are major new proposals to protect EU companies against perceived unfair advantage from companies benefitting from subsidies from non-EU States. Countries such as China and Russia have already reacted to…

European Union, Four-to-three Merger, Merger control, Merger regulation, Telecommunications

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By Paula Riedel, Thomas Wilson, Athina Van Melkebeke (Kirkland & Ellis)/12 June 2020 In May 2016, the European Commission (“Commission”) blocked CK Hutchison’s (“Hutchison”) £10.25 billion acquisition of Telefónica UK (“O2”).[1] The Commission had previously cleared a series of “4-to-3” telecoms mergers across Europe, subject to increasingly far-reaching remedies.[2] Specific features of the UK mobile…

Digital competition, European Commission, European Union, Ex ante regulation, Market investigations, Structural competition problems

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On 2 June 2020, the European Commission published its roadmap on the possible introduction of a ‘new competition tool’ that would allow it to initiate market investigations into perceived structural competition problems, with the ability to impose market-wide remedies on companies. The proposal has obvious parallels to the market investigation tools already in place in…

European Court of Justice, European Union, Restriction by object

(Szecskay Attorneys-at-Law, Hungary)/ /1 Comment

    Sisyphus was a Greek mythological figure who was condemned to roll an immense boulder up a hill only for it to roll down every time it neared the top. Repeating this action for eternity. The quest for a clear and operational methodology for finding a restriction of competition ‘by object’ feels similar sometimes….

COVID-19, European Commission, European Union, State aid

, (Kirkland & Ellis) and (Kirkland & Ellis, Belgium)/ /1 Comment

Overview Given the unprecedented challenge faced by European businesses in the wake of the public health measures being adopted, the EU and its Member States are taking extraordinary measures to minimise the economic fallout from COVID-19. Over the coming weeks, Member States will make available billions in financial aid an in a speech on 13…

Brexit, European Union, United Kingdom

(Pinsent Masons LLP)/ /Leave a comment

Whilst the EU-UK trade negotiations have barely commenced, one thing is already quite clear: the two sides are poles apart on the key issue of level playing field (LPF) provisions and the extent to which these should feature in a future EU-UK free trade agreement.  The aim of these provisions, as originally set out in…

Competition, Competition law, Competition policy, Digitisation, European Union, Merger control, Remedies, Uncategorized

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Most competition authorities have a preference for structural remedies in merger cases in the form of divestitures while behavioural remedies are used less frequently. The below blog post analyses whether the historical bias of behavioural remedies is still warranted or whether it is time that authorities take a more flexible and differentiated approach when considering…

European Union, Merger control, Misleading information, Türkiye

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Mergers and acquisitions are effective tools for boosting innovation and commercial advancement. With the rising globalism in the circulation of goods and services, undertakings are forced to seek mutually beneficial collaborations to refrain from being outmaneuvered by the creative destruction that defines the way of doing business in the modern day. Vertical integrations that may…

European Court of Justice, European Union, Gun jumping, Mergers

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There has been an important milestone in the search for more legal certainty in gun-jumping cases: On September 26, 2019, Advocate General (AG) Tanchev issued his opinion in the Marine Harvest case (C-10/18 P) and recommended that the European Court of Justice (CoJ) partially annul Marine Harvest’s gun-jumping fine. Below we take a look at…