General Court of the European Union

Abuse of dominance, Advocate General, European Court of Justice, Four-to-three Merger, General Court of the European Union, Guidelines, Horizontal, Judicial review, Merger control, Merger notification, Merger Thresholds

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Advocate General Kokott has found [1] that the General Court erred in law in requiring the European Commission to show anti-competitive effects of a merger with “strong probability” and that the scope of its judicial review was overly broad, notably in relation to economic evidence.   Key takeaways This case will give the Court of…

Abuse of dominance, Advantage, Anticompetitive agreements, As Efficient Competitor, Burden of Proof, European Commission, Fines, General Court of the European Union, Google, Market definition, Tying and Bundling

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The long-awaited Google Android decision is out (see the press release here or the full text here). The General Court has dismissed Google’s action almost in its entirety, slightly reducing the record fine from 4.343 billion euros to (still a record) 4.125 billion euros. This post gives a very first overview of the judgment and…

Dutch clause, European Commission, General Court of the European Union, Gun jumping, Killer acquisitions, Merger control

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On September 6, 2022, the European Commission (Commission) announced that it had prohibited the acquisition by Illumina Inc., a U.S company supplying sequencing- and array-based solutions for genetic and genomic analysis, of Grail LLC, another U.S. company that develops blood tests for the early detection of cancers, under the EU Merger Regulation (EUMR).  Grail has…

Cartels, European Court of Justice, European Union, Evidence, Fundamental rights, General Court of the European Union, Procedures

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In recent years, there has been much talk of ‘due process’ and of ensuring a fair and impartial case handling by competition authorities. The EU Courts consistently stress the importance of respecting the parties’ defence rights but often end up siding with the European Commission. By finding no violation of the parties’ defence rights they…

Abuse of dominance, As Efficient Competitor, Economics, Effects-based, Fundamental rights, General Court of the European Union, Procedures

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The General Court of the European Union delivered a blow to the European Commission in fully annulling its Qualcomm (exclusivity payments) decision of 2018 and a EUR 997 million fine. Qualcomm v Commission[1] is the first annulment of an Article 102 TFEU decision adopted by Commissioner Margrethe Vestager. The judgment is notably based on the…

European Union, General Court of the European Union, Gun jumping, Merger control

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On 18 May 2022, the EU General Court (the “GC”) upheld the European Commission’s (the “EC”) €28 million fine imposed on Canon for gun-jumping in the context of a (somewhat unique) so-called warehousing structure. The judgment confirms that structures such as the one at issue are not allowed under EU law without an express derogation…

Complaint, ECN, General Court of the European Union, Poland, Rule of Law

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On 9 February 2022, the General Court handed down its judgment in the offbeat case Sped-Pro (T-791/19). Notably, the General Court ruled that before rejecting a complaint on the grounds that the competition authority of a Member State is “better placed”, the Commission must examine, in a concrete and precise manner, the indications provided by…

European Union, Fundamental rights, General Court of the European Union, Hybrid Settlement, Presumption of Innocence

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The long-awaited judgement of the General Court in the price-fixing case against a world-leading provider of transport solutions, Scania, is out. On February 2, 2022, in a hybrid settlement case, the General Court dismissed the appeal filed by Scania. It upheld the decision of the Commission, which imposed a fine of € 880.5 million for…

Abuse of dominance, As Efficient Competitor, Burden of Proof, European Union, General Court of the European Union, Rebates, Standard of Proof

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On 26 January 2022, the EU’s General Court (GC) annulled the European Commission’s (EC) €1.06 billion fine on Intel for abusing a dominant position with its rebate schemes.[1] The judgment demonstrates that the European Courts are prepared to look in detail at evidence and economic analysis in antitrust cases, and will annul EC decisions if…

Abuse of dominance, Advertising, Algorithms, Digital economy, Digital markets, Digitisation, E-commerce, Effects-based, European Union, Evidence, General Court of the European Union, Google, Online advertising, Online platforms, Self-preferencing

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The long-awaited Google Shopping judgment is out (see the press release here and the full decision here). The General Court has dismissed Google’s action almost in its entirety, upholding the fine of € 2.42 billion that the EU Commission issued in 2017 on the company for abusing its dominance as a search engine by favouring…