I. Cartels Legal Framework and Procedure In November 2021, Austria adopted a regulation on certain procedural aspects of leniency applications.[2] The regulation sets out the required content of leniency and immunity applications, the possibility to request a marker, and the possibility to submit a short form application in case the applicant has already submitted an…
In 2017 the ECJ decided in its CTL Logistics judgment (C‑489/15, CTL Logistics, ECLI:EU:C:2017:834) that national civil courts must not examine railway charges if they fall under the competence of a railway regulator under Directive 2001/14/EC (now Directive 2012/34/EU) under equity (§ 315 German Civil Code, “BGB”). AG Ćapeta recently suggested reconsidering this case law…
In February 2022, Canada’s Minister of Innovation, Science and Economic Development announced that the Canadian government was evaluating ways to improve the operation of Canada’s Competition Act (Act). The Minister said that changes would be made in multiple stages, with some initial amendments to be proposed in the following months that would have “an immediate…
One of the purposes of the South African Competition Act is stated in the Act to be to “promote a greater spread of ownership, in particular, to increase the ownership stakes of historically disadvantaged persons”. The term “historically disadvantaged persons” (“HDPs”) is effectively defined in the Act as non-white South Africans and firms which are…
On 20 April 2022, following a lengthy consultation, the UK government announced final plans to strengthen its merger and antitrust regime. Designed to address a concern that competition in the UK may have weakened over the past 20 years, the plans are wide-ranging. They include proposals to expand the powers of the UK Competition and…
The Ankara Regional Administrative Court 8th Administrative Chamber (“Regional Court“)[1] recently ruled for the stay of execution of the Turkish Competition Authority’s (“TCA“) cartel decision[2] which has imposed on two undertakings active in the chemicals market an administrative monetary fine for violation of the Article 4 of the Law No. 4054 on the Protection of…
In the coming years, data collected by vehicles will be subject to a new EU regulatory regime consisting of horizontal rules applicable across many industries and vertical rules designed specifically for the automotive sector. In February 2022, the EU Commission adopted a proposal for a new Data Act, which is currently working its way through…
On 24 February 2022, Russia invaded the territory of Ukraine and triggered the largest European war since 1945. The war has led to unprecedented loss of human lives and the biggest refugee crisis since World Word II, according to the UNHCR. At this stage, the economic impact of the war is difficult to predict. Some…
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…
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…
