On October 22, Astana (Kazakhstan) hosted the International Conference “Industrial Competition Advocacy in the EAEU cross-border markets”, where issues related to the antitrust regulation in the EAEU were discussed. One of the most important issues in the competition area of the EAEU development is the establishment of regulatory framework for the EAEU antitrust regulation and…
By Daniel Schwarz, Clifford Chance, and Mark Katz, Davies Ward Phillips & Vineberg Introduction With the Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA) having finally been signed by the EU and Canada on October 30, 2016, it’s worth exploring what it says about competition law and policy and how it may impact these issues on both…
On 1 December 2016, the UK Competition and Markets Authority (“CMA”) obtained a novel “disqualification undertaking” from Daniel Aston, the managing director of online poster supplier Trod Limited, whereby Mr Aston agreed not to act as a director of a UK company for five years. Trod had previously been fined £163,371 for agreeing with a…
The second part of the blog on the FCO’s background paper on “Competition and Consumer Conduct – Conflict or Parallelism between Consumer Protection and Antitrust Law?” covers the interplay between consumer and competition protection and their legal tools in practice, including recent and potential future developments. (For the first part on the general principles please…
On 28 November 2016, the Hong Kong Competition Commission (“HKCC“) published an advisory bulletin calling upon the Hong Kong Institute of Architects and the Hong Kong Institute of Planners to take appropriate action to remove or amend certain provisions in their respective codes of conduct which raised competition concerns. While such associations, as statutory bodies,…
On 28 November 2016 the Antimonopoly Committee of Ukraine (AMC) launched public consultations on the draft Horizontal Merger Guidelines. The AMC invites to submit comments to the draft by 7 December 2016. The draft Guidelines, prepared in cooperation with the Competition Council of the Republic of Lithuania, Bundeskartellamt and the US Federal Trade Commission, are modelled after…
On 4 November 2016, the State Administration for Industry and Commerce (“SAIC“) – one of China’s antitrust authorities – published on its website three decisions, whereby three payment encryption device suppliers were fined by SAIC’s branch in Anhui Province (“Anhui AIC“). Payment encryption devices are used by bank customers to protect the security of payments…
The Federal Cartel Office (FCO) held a conference with antitrust experts (professors and judges) on October 6. 2016, on “Competition and Consumer Conduct – Conflict or Parallelism between Consumer protection and Antitrust Law?” As part of the conference, the FCO published a background paper on the same topic, available in German, see http://www.bundeskartellamt.de/DE/UeberUns/Veranstaltungen/ArbeitskreisKartellrecht/arbeitskreiskartellrecht_node.html I. Background…
Speaking at a recent conference in Hong Kong, the President of the Hong Kong Competition Tribunal, Mr Justice Godfrey Lam, examined whether parties might seek remedies for anti-competitive acts in Hong Kong based on common law economic torts without relying on follow-on actions under the Competition Ordinance. A follow-on action is a private action for…
A Brexit Competition Law Working Group has been formed, chaired by Sir John Vickers. The other members are Jon Turner QC, Amelia Fletcher, John Fingleton, Sir Nicholas Forwood, Ali Nikpay and Richard Whish. The aim of the group is to stimulate debate and develop practical policy suggestions for Government on issues for UK competition law…
