Horizontal

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

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

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…

Anticompetitive agreements, European Commission, Exemptions, Guidelines, Horizontal, National competition authorities (NCAs), Netherlands, Sustainability

(Bird & Bird, Netherlands) and , (Bird & Bird)/ /Leave a comment

Sustainability as a policy priority It is no news that sustainability is an important topic of competition policy across the EU. There is clear consensus that competition law enforcement should be careful not to hinder cooperation between companies, even competitors, that facilitates the realisation of or progress towards reaching sustainability goals of climate policy (or…

Anticompetitive agreements, Antitrust, Collusion, Economics, European Commission, Guidelines, Horizontal, Joint Bidding, Pharmaceuticals, Price fixing, Restriction by object

(Szecskay Attorneys-at-Law, Hungary)/ /Leave a comment

The European Commission’s horizontal guidelines are an invaluable tool for practitioners in antitrust compliance work. The team at Unit A1 in DG COMP have done a great job at further developing the guidelines in the new draft that was published for stakeholder comments on 1 March 2022. Today, the EU & Competition team at Szecskay…

Competition Law 2021, Damages, Digital economy, Dominance, Enforcement, Germany, Horizontal, Judicial review, Litigation, Merger control, Online platforms, Price fixing, Rebates, Uncategorized

(Heinz & Zagrosek Partner mbB, Germany)/ /Leave a comment

The following is a selection of some of the most important developments in German competition law and policy in 2021.  It has been a busy year for the Federal Cartel Office (“FCO”), inter alia because the new rules for digital companies took effect.  The following covers cases under these new rules, abuse of dominance, merger…

European Union, HBER, Horizontal, Sustainability

(University of Antwerp)/ /5 Comments

Debates amongst competition scholars and practitioners have been buzzing with references to sustainability recently. Several books and articles were written about the topic in the last two years and several competition agencies have written position papers about it. Most of the debate about the interaction between competition law and sustainability concerns agreements between competitors that…

European Commission, HBER, Horizontal

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

On 1 March 2022, the European Commission (“EC”) published for consultation two draft revised horizontal block exemption regulations (“HBERs”) on research & development (“R&D”) and specialisation agreements, as well as draft revised horizontal cooperation guidelines (“Horizontal Guidelines”). The EC’s stated aim is to make it easier for companies to cooperate in areas such as R&D…

European Union, HBER, Horizontal, Sustainability

(Baker McKenzie)/ /Leave a comment

The Commission’s draft chapter on sustainability cooperation may surprise even those following the debate about EU antitrust policy and sustainability closely. A more worldly approach to benefits, a new and useful tailored safe harbour for sustainability standards, plus a good first attempt to keep sustainability cooperation out of Article 101.1 (or at least the ‘by…

Cartels, Collusion, Green Deal, HBER, Horizontal, Leniency, Settlement, Sustainability, Technological Development

(University of Vienna, Austria) and (General Court)/ /3 Comments

On 8 July 2021, the Commission found that Daimler, BMW and the Volkswagen Group (Volkswagen, Audi and Porsche) violated competition law by colluding on technical development in the area of emission cleaning for new passenger diesel cars, fining the latter two a total of €875 million. The current hype regarding competition law and sustainability comes…

Anticompetitive agreements, Competition policy, European Commission, European Union, Green Deal, HBER, Horizontal, Netherlands, Sustainability

(Deloitte Legal)/ /Leave a comment

On 6 May 2021, the European Commission (“Commission”) published its evaluation of the Horizontal Block Exemption Regulations and the Guidelines on Horizontal co-operation agreements (“HGL”) (as reported here). The evaluation indicated that revision and clarity is needed in various areas, inter alia for sustainability agreements. The Dutch Authority for Consumer & Markets (“ACM”) announced on…

Anticompetitive agreements, Competition policy, European Commission, HBER, Horizontal

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

On 6 May 2021, the European Commission (“Commission”) published a staff working document (“SWD”) on its evaluation of the horizontal block exemption regulations on research & development and specialisation agreements (“H-BERs”) and the horizontal guidelines. The SWD is accompanied by an evaluation study, commissioned to provide qualitative and quantitative evidence to support the Commission’s evaluation. The findings show…