On 12 January 2023, the EU Court of Justice upheld the EU General Court’s judgment imposing a fine on Lithuanian Railways for dismantling a section of the railway track. While reaffirming its essential facility case law (Bronner), the Court confirmed that the Bronner case law did not apply to the deliberate destruction of State-owned infrastructure…
Key Highlights The Ukraine War: Merger filing activity in Ukraine was down 61% compared to 2021, but the Ukrainian competition authority throughout 2022 reviewed over 300 mergers and continued to initiate merger investigations. Brazil filing activity rose steeply, up 47% compared to the five-year average for the same period (January – November) and up 6%…
On 12 January 2023, the new EU Foreign Subsidies Regulation (FSR) entered into force. The majority of the FSR will start to apply on 12 July 2023. The FSR constitutes a new investigatory review tool for the European Commission. It will focus on economic behaviour on the internal market by companies who received foreign subsidies…
“All animals are equal but some are more equal than others” (George Orwell, ‘Animal Farm’) On 28 November 2022, the Council of the European Union gave its final approval to the new EU Foreign Subsidies Regulation 2022/2560 (the FSR). The regulation addresses distortions created by subsidies that are granted by non-EU countries to companies operating…
By now the issues surrounding the Super League need no further introduction. On the one hand, there are monopolists that potentially abuse their dominant position, whereas, on the other hand, there is a controversial collective of clubs, seeking to change or expand Europe’s current football offering. Consequently, the ECJ’s ruling may shape Europe’s sports sector…
On 28 November 2022, the EU adopted the Foreign Subsidies Regulation, giving the European Commission powers to intervene to tackle foreign subsidies distorting competition in the EU internal market. The FSR, due to apply by mid-2023, will have a major impact on companies that engage in M&A and public tenders in the EU, and which…
Advocate General Juliane Kokott has proposed that the EU Court of Justice should find that competition authorities have the power to apply Article 102 TFEU to corporate transactions that are not reportable and test under that provision whether the transaction as such constitutes an abuse of a dominant position. However, a competition authority cannot in…
The Digital Services Act: a primer Following its adoption by the Council on October 4, the final version of the Digital Services Act (DSA) has been approved and will be published in the Official Journal of the European Union (OJEU) in the forthcoming weeks. The DSA operates a major step in the ambitious project of…
Last week, the European Commission adopted an updated version of its Informal Guidance Notice (“the IGN”), the mechanism that allows businesses to seek clarity regarding the compliance of specific activities with EU competition law. The substance of the IGN is animated by “guidance letters”, informal documents intended to provide legal certainty to undertakings facing novel…
Regulation 2019/452 (as amended, the FDI Regulation) inserted the European Commission (the Commission) into a hitherto jealously guarded area of EU Member State authority – screening of foreign direct investment (FDI) for threats to security and public order. The FDI Regulation sets out minimum requirements for Member States’ FDI screening regimes and a mechanism for…
