With the much-debated reforms to Act 19/2003 of 4 July, on capital movements (“Act 19/2003”), the Spanish foreign direct investment (“FDI”) regime has been expanded over the past few years. However, FDI screening in relation to defense investments predates Act 19/2003 (and the recent FDI hype more broadly), and was regulated in Royal Decree 664/1999…
Europe is not alien to Criminal liability for bid rigging. There are even have national criminal codes that consider cartels and bid rigging practices as a criminal offence (see Criminalisation of Cartels and Bid Rigging Conspiracies: A Focus on Custodial Sentences | OECD). Notwithstanding this, cases are rare, and judgments addressing this topic are scarce….
Introduction The Civil Chamber of the Spanish Supreme Court has already issued forty judgments ruling on appeals against judgments of the Courts of Appeal on claims for damages caused by the truck cartel. The Courts of Appeal have now handed down 4315 rulings on compensation for more than 25,000 cartelized trucks, 95% of them (partially)…
Approaching the summer vacation, the end of July was deemed extremely eventful for NCA enforcement actions. On 18 July, the Italian Competition Authority (ICA or AGCM) triggered a sanctioning proceeding against Google with respect to the submission to users of a request for consent to the linking of the services they offer. A few days…
Introduction Companies nowadays are subject to strict regulations in different areas of law. These regulations have obliged companies to implement compliance programmes to ensure that they comply with these rules to avoid severe consequences. Compliance programmes were originally focused on criminal matters. However, compliance programmes have now also expanded to other areas of law such…
Introduction Nowadays, it is not uncommon for Spanish courts to have to rule on disputes where there is uniformity in the facts and the applicable legal rules. In civil courts, mass litigation arose as a result of nullity suits filed by consumers in banking and financial matters regarding contracts for the subscription of banking products…
Below we cover the main competition law developments in Spain in 2023, concerning (i) institutions and legislation, (ii) antitrust, (iii) mergers, and (iv) State aid. The selection, as usual with these lists, is partly subjective. Institutions and Legislation Royal Decree-Law 5/2023 Reforms the Spanish Competition Law On 29 June 2023, Royal Decree-Law 5/2023 approving…
On 26 July 2023, the Autoritat Catalana de la Competència (a regional competition authority in Spain; hereinafter, the ACCO) issued an infringement decision against the Asociación Profesional Elite Taxi (Professional Association Elite Taxi; hereinafter, Elite Taxi) for a boycott conduct which had as its object the digital platform business pioneer, UBER. This latest decision follows…
On 12 July 2023, the Spanish National Markets and Competition Commission (CNMC) issued its decision in the case S/0013/21 – Amazon/Apple Brandgating (the Decision) imposing a fine of €143.6 million on Apple and Amazon for restricting inter and intra-brand competition in the sale of Apple products on the Spanish Amazon marketplace contrary to Articles 1…
The Spanish National Markets and Competition Commission (CNMC) has approved Communication 1/2023 of 13 June, published in Spain’s Official State Journal (BOE) on 30 June 2023, (i) establishing that the authority holding sanctioning powers in matters of competition is the competent authority for imposing a public procurement ban, and (ii) setting out the general criteria…
