Leniency

Advocate General, Damages, Disclosure, Enforcement, Leniency, Private enforcement, Procedures, Public procurement, Settlement

(University of Vienna)/ /Leave a comment

The scope of the protection of leniency documents appears to be the central issue when it comes to the discussion about whether there is a conflict between private and public enforcement. AG Szpunar’s statements in the recently published Opinion (C-2/23) have now shed light on the CJEU’s possible direction for how to deal with this…

Blockchain, India, Leniency

(Supreme Court of India)/ /Leave a comment

Indian competition law recently enacted a ‘leniency plus’ regime, which incentivizes the cartelists to disclose information about their other cartels that were hitherto unknown to the Competition Commission of India (CCI). While this is a welcome change for tracing more cartels, this piece argues that it still falls short of tackling the near future challenges…

Leniency, Switzerland

, (Lenz & Staehelin)/ /Leave a comment

Introduction Most recently, the Swiss Federal Administrative Court (the “Appeals Court”) rendered a series of judgments on the Swiss leniency regime. All cases handle suspected unlawful agreements affecting competition in the construction industry in Engadin, a mountainous region in South East Switzerland. Besides common geographic roots, the cases share another feature: they all concern appellants…

Abuse of dominance, Cartels, Commitments, Competition law, India, Leniency, Merger control, Settlement

(Lakshmikumaran and Sridharan)/ /Leave a comment

The Competition (Amendment) Bill (‘Bill’) was first published for public consultation in February 2020 and it is only on 5 August 2022 that it has finally been tabled before the Indian Parliament. The Bill is a concerted effort to harmonize competition law with the evolving realities of businesses today. The Bill proposes to amend both…

Collective Redress, Damages, Disclosure, Effects-based, Enforcement, European Union, Evidence, Fair Fund, International Law Talk, Leniency, Liability, National competition authorities (NCAs), Podcast, Private actions, Private enforcement, Procedures, Standard of Proof

(University of Vienna, Austria)/ /Leave a comment

Two Germans meet in Graz to discuss private enforcement of competition law in the EU. Tune in for the first in-person interview of the competition edition of the International Law Talk Podcast. On a warm summer day in June, I interviewed Thomas Thiede on our favorite topic: private enforcement of competition law and its newest…

Australia, Cartels, Criminal enforcement, Criminal sanctions, Disclosure, Leniency

, (K&L Gates)/ /Leave a comment

Legal professional privilege (LPP) has long been recognised as a powerful, though controversial protection. As the Australian High Court once declared, it is “a practical guarantee of fundamental constitutional or human rights”.[1] Yet, despite its well-established jurisprudential position, its utilisation to protect internal cartel investigation records of criminal cartel immunity applicants (IA) from being disclosed…

Competition law, ECN, Gun jumping, Ireland, Leniency, Merger control

(DLA Piper Ireland)/ /Leave a comment

On 29 June 2022, Ireland enacted major reforms to its Competition Act.  These changes will impact on all sectors across the Irish economy, with potential target industries such as Life Sciences, Energy, Technology and Consumer Goods facing increased scrutiny – particularly as Ireland is a key HQ location for EMEA operations.  While the reforms belatedly…

Damages, Fair Fund, Leniency, Private actions, Private enforcement

(University of Vienna, Austria)/ /Leave a comment

Europe’s leniency programs face a problem. Creating an incentive for private enforcement with the 2014 Damages Directive came at the expense of leniency applications all over the EU. A further balance of public and private enforcement will be necessary. Many approaches have been discussed. Recently, calls for exemptions or limitations of civil liability for leniency…

Cartels, Collusion, Green Deal, HBER, Horizontal, Leniency, Settlement, Sustainability, Technological Development

(University of Vienna, Austria) and (General Court)/ /3 Comments

On 8 July 2021, the Commission found that Daimler, BMW and the Volkswagen Group (Volkswagen, Audi and Porsche) violated competition law by colluding on technical development in the area of emission cleaning for new passenger diesel cars, fining the latter two a total of €875 million. The current hype regarding competition law and sustainability comes…

Evidence, Leniency, Merger Thresholds, Settlement, Ukraine

, (Redcliffe Partners)/ /Leave a comment

On 21 October 2020, during the kick-off event of the EU-funded Twinning Project, the Antimonopoly Committee of Ukraine (the “AMC“) announced that it is preparing the draft law that will introduce amendments to the Ukrainian merger filing thresholds. The AMC will submit the draft law to the Ukrainian Parliament early this November and expects it…