Jurisdiction

Antitrust, Cartels, European Commission, European Union

(Norton Rose Fulbright, Belgium)/ /Leave a comment

On 4th November, the European Commission published a far-reaching consultation (the Consultation) on proposals to boost the enforcement powers of national competition authorities (NCAs) and to address differences between national competition enforcement systems in the European Union.  The Consultation builds on the 2014 Communication on Ten Years of Regulation 1/2003 (the Communication) but also reflects…

Antitrust, Cartels, European Union

(Baker & McKenzie)/ /Leave a comment

Any company or organisation that finds itself as the ‘middle man’ in contacts between competitors or which has dealings with such a middleman must take care, as a flurry of recent EU cases has demonstrated. Any company that directly facilitates those contacts is in very dangerous waters indeed. Cartel Facilitation In AC Treuhand, the European…

Competition, Consumer welfare, Europe, European Commission, European Union, Mergers

(Baker McKenzie, Belgium)/ /Leave a comment

We have recently celebrated the 25th anniversary of the EU Merger Regulation, which came into force on 21 September 1990. Since that date, we have seen an exponential growth in merger control notifications at the European level – at least up until the financial crisis that began in 2008. The good news is that, to…

Cartels, European Union

/ /Leave a comment

If the recent Wahl opinion could have instilled some doubts about the responsibility of cartel facilitators under Article 101 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union (TFEU),[1]Advocate General Wahl Opinion, AC Treuhand v Commission, ECLI:EU:C:2015:350 the debate has been brought to an end with the Court of Justice of the European Union’s…

Antitrust, Competition, Enforcement, European Union, Germany

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

This blog deals with the 2nd part of the FCO’s discussion paper on internet platforms: possible theories of harm and intervention of competition agencies. For the first part on general concepts please see my previous blog. Merger control The FCO explains that reducing the number of platforms may actually increase competition, due to the easier…

Bulgaria

(Eversheds Sutherland, Bulgaria)/ /Leave a comment

The Bulgarian Competition Protection Commission (“CPC” or “Commission”) has recently issued an important decision regarding the parallel trade of pharmaceuticals and the possibilities for its limitations. In September 2013 ,- Sopharma Trading JSC (“Sopharma”), which is the affiliated distributor of one of the leading Bulgarian pharmaceutical companies, filed with the CPC a complaint against several…

Canada, Intellectual property (IP), Pharmaceuticals

(Davies Ward Phillips & Vineberg LLP, Canada)/ /Leave a comment

I. INTRODUCTION In June 2015, Canada’s Competition Bureau released its updated draft of the Intellectual Property Enforcement Guidelines (“Draft IPEGs”) for public review and consultation. The Draft IPEGs are intended to reflect the 2009 amendments to the Competition Act (the “Act”), including the changes to the criminal conspiracy provisions and the introduction of a new…

Canada, Investigations

(Davies Ward Phillips & Vineberg LLP, Canada)/ /Leave a comment

Canada’s Commissioner of Competition is armed with a variety of compulsory powers that he can use in pursuing investigations. One such power is the ability, with the permission of a court, to subpoena documents and information under section 11 of the Canadian Competition Act. Of late, the Commissioner has been using such orders quite extensively,…

Canada, Consumer welfare

(Davies Ward Phillips & Vineberg LLP, Canada)/ /Leave a comment

By Anita Banicevic and Mark Katz On October 14, 2015, the Canadian Competition Bureau announced that it had reached a Consent Agreement with Bell Canada to resolve the Bureau’s concerns regarding reviews posted by Bell employees for two Bell applications (apps) that were available from the iTunes App Store and the Google Play Store. The…