Investigations

Abuse of dominance, Commitments, Effects-based, European Commission, European Union, Investigations, Market definition, Tying and Bundling, Unfair trading practices

(Leiden University)/ /Leave a comment

Factual background During the summer of 2020, news came out about a claim made by Slack against Microsoft for abusing its dominance by tying Teams to the Microsoft and Office 365 software packages. The claim at the time was that Microsoft had been forcing millions of users to install Teams and denied them the possibility…

Amazon, General Court of the European Union, Investigations, Request for information (RFI)

, (Mayer Brown)/ /Leave a comment

Introduction Like many competition authorities, the European Commission (“Commission”) has far-reaching powers to ask for huge amounts of information for its competition law investigations (see Council Regulation (EC) No 1/2003, Articles 18 to 21). These days it is no longer just hard copy documents being asked for, but significant amounts of electronic data in specified formats…

Abuse of dominance, Chile, Digital competition, Digital markets, Investigations, Latin America, Market definition

(Universidad Diego Portales)/ /Leave a comment

Introduction Latin America as well as Chile, have developed a nascent practice in digital markets in the last years. According to a recent survey, between 2015 and 2023 Latin American competition authorities have led 99 investigations, including enforcement activity (both regarding cartel and unilateral conduct) and advocacy. In the case of Chile, the competition authority…

Brexit, Competition and Markets Authority, Investigations, United Kingdom

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

On 8 February 2023, the CAT upheld claims by both BMW and Volkswagen confirming that the CMA cannot compel responses to information requests from companies with no territorial connection to the UK.   CMA Investigation In March 2022, the CMA opened an investigation into suspected anti-competitive conduct in relation to the recycling of end-of-life vehicles….

Dawn raids, Investigations, Turkey

, , , (ACTECON)/ /Leave a comment

The Turkish Competition Authority (TCA) has rendered a number of decisions, particularly in recent years, on whether on-site inspections have been hindered or complicated. These include two recent decisions on D-Market Elektronik Hizmetler ve Ticaret A.Ş. (“Hepsiburada“), one of the largest e-marketplaces in Turkey. In the first of these decisions, the TCA examined whether the…

Enforcement, Germany, Information exchange, Investigations, Switzerland

, (Lenz & Staehelin)/ /Leave a comment

New Cooperation Agreement On November 1, 2022, Switzerland and Germany signed an administrative agreement on cooperation between their competition authorities (“Agreement”). The Agreement is expected to enter into force in September 2023 at the earliest because the Swiss Federal Assembly still has to approve the Agreement. The ratifying German Federal Ministry of Economics and Climate…

Investigations, Italy, Killer acquisitions, Mergers, Online platforms, Settlement

, (Portolano Cavallo)/ /Leave a comment

On August 5, 2022, the Italian Parliament adopted the 2021 Annual Law for Market and Competition (the “2021 Competition Law”), [1] the aim of which is to adapt the Italian system to EU competition rules and policies and to improve and liberalize markets affected by regulatory or economic barriers. The law reflects most of the…

Confidentiality, ECN, Fines, Investigations, Parental liability, Portugal

, (DLA Piper Portugal)/ /Leave a comment

On 16 September 2022 came into force the amendments to the Portuguese Competition Act introduced by Law no. 17/2022, of 17 August which also modifies the bylaws of the Competition Authority (PCA). This is the third amendment to the 2012 Competition Act, and the first amendment to the PCA bylaws. Law no. 17/2022 transposes the…

Abuse of dominance, Bulgaria, Investigations

, (Tsvetkova, Bebov and Partners)/ /Leave a comment

Background Starting from 2009, the Bulgarian Commission for Protection of Competition (“BCPC”) has conducted several sector inquiries and investigations on the oil market in Bulgaria – a sector giving rise to serious allegations for cartel activities and abuse of dominance. One of the last investigations was held in 2017. The proceedings were initiated as a…

Competition Commission of India, Data protection, Digital economy, India, Investigations, Privacy, Whatsapp

, , (Nishith Desai Associates)/ /Leave a comment

On 24 March 2021, the Competition Commission of India (‘CCI’) passed an order initiating investigation against WhatsApp Inc. (‘WhatsApp’) and Facebook Inc. (‘FB’) to determine if WhatsApp’s updated privacy policy terms allowing it to share user data with FB and its subsidiaries constituted an abuse of dominance (‘Initiation Order’).[1] The Initiation Order shoves India’s competition…