The bigger they are, the harder they fall and the sounds of the crash get louder as the legal controls get weaker. Take, for instance, the recent £807.2m sale of Edinburgh airport to Global Infrastructure Partners. This is the latest disposal following the original recommendation by the UK Competition Commission (CC) that BAA’s airport operating…
Legal change sometimes takes unpredictable paths: mid-April, something important happened for European law in Luxembourg, but this did not come from the European Court of Justice (the “ECJ”). Not every reader of this blog is necessarily aware that the ECJ has a sister European Court in Luxembourg, which is called the EFTA Court. This Court…
On 15 March 2012, almost exactly a year after it launched its consultation concerning possible reforms to the UK competition regime, the UK Government’s Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (“BIS”) announced the changes that it had decided to implement, with the intention of developing and improving the competition regime in the UK. There will…
Published on November 30, 2011, Law No. 12529/11 (the New Brazilian Antitrust Law – NBAL) has been the object of criticism and skepticism by players from several fronts. In short, important matters such as the challenge of structuring and training the staff of “Super CADE”, and “innovations” in the procedural arena may lead to disputes…
There have been two big pieces of news in the UK recently: the resignation of John Fingleton, the chief executive of the Office of Fair Trading, and the heavily-trailed announcement of the newly merged OFT and Competition Commission, now called the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA). The link between the two events is probably only…
In March 2011, the U.K. Government Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (“BIS”) consulted on proposed reforms to the U.K. competition regime. The objectives were lofty (“improving the robustness of decisions,” “supporting the competition authorities in taking forward high impact cases,” and “improving speed and predictability for businesses”) and the proposals in part structural (most…
Competition authorities are forever looking to be more efficient. With limited resources and an almost unlimited supply of complaints and applications for immunity, the premium attached to efficiency in antitrust enforcement has never been greater. From the publication of decisions to the issuance of guidelines, and from the promotion of private enforcement to the giving…
Steffano Grassani wrote a thoughtful response to my post on the Italian Pfizer decision. His discussion helps to crystallize some of the key issues raised by the case that merit some further consideration. Clearly, Steffano is right that misleading patent authorities is not the only possible patent related abuse. However, it must also be true…
On January 18, 2012, the district court of Bonn ruled on the scope of access to file for third parties in a cartel case under German law. The court rejected the claim insofar as it concerned access to leniency applications. This is a landmark decision. The court upheld the FCO’s practice to refuse access to…
Sometimes competition law looks as if it’s on the side of the bullies. Take, for example, the French Autorité de la concurrence’s recent decision in the Paris food retail sector case. The Autorité came up with the idea of using a new tool – a structural injunction – to tackle retail concentration. This would let…
