We are continuing with our competition law issues of the International Law Talk Podcast. Two weeks ago, I talked to Oliver Bretz, founding partner at Euclid Law and a merger expert, about the fragmentation of EU merger control. We focused particularly on the changes in the EU one-stop-systems through Brexit, the increasing use of EU…
5 Key Takeaways More Deals Take Longer More deals than ever before involved extended CCPC reviews. Of 42 deals notified, 10 involved merger review delays of at least 3 months. Two “Phase 2” reviews, both on going as of 15/01/2021, have each taken 11 months already. According to the CCPC, this trend reflects “the complex…
Despite the pandemic, 2020 has been a very busy year for the Federal Cartel Office (“FCO”) and courts in the field of competition law in Germany. The following is merely a selection of interesting developments. It does not include the recently adopted reform of the Competition Act, which merits its own blog. Generally, the FCO…
The December 24 announcement that the European Union (EU) and the United Kingdom (UK) had reached an agreement in principle on a new Trade and Cooperation Agreement (the TCA) was greeted with sighs of relief on both sides of the Channel. For competition lawyers and parties engaged in M&A activities, however, the work of clarifying…
The Court of Auditors believes that the introduction of new instruments should go hand in hand with stricter enforcement of existing instruments In a Special Report published on 19 November 2020, the European Court of Auditors (the ‘Court’) makes a plea for more stringent enforcement of EU competition policy. The Special Report comes at a…
On 2 December 2020, the European Commission published a Notice to Stakeholders on Brexit and EU competition law.[1] It essentially reflects the UK position as set out in CMA guidance published on 1 December 2020.[2] These papers are equivalent to the divorce papers governing the children’s custody. Who has the kids and when over the…
Last week (November 17, 2020), Ecuador’s Executive Branch issued the second package of reforms to its competition regime this year (Executive Decree 1193). The two main changes have to do with merger control and with restrictions ‘by object’. Following last April’s implementation of an expedited concentration procedure, the new reform now seeks to reduce the…
The European Court of Auditors’ Special Report published on 19 November 2020 is an interesting read for a dark COVID winter evening: “The Commission’s EU merger control and antitrust proceedings: a need to scale up market oversight“.[1] In respect of merger control, the Report (and the European Commission’s Response to the ECA contained in it)…
Recently, after almost 15 months of discussions, the Parliament of Georgia adopted a comprehensive set of amendments to the Law on Competition (hereinafter – “LC”). Prepared within the framework of the EU-funded technical assistance project “Support to the Georgian Competition Agency”, these amendments are aimed at enhancing the effectiveness of Georgia’s competition framework and thereby…
On 28 October 2020, the Antimonopoly Committee of Ukraine (the “AMC“) submitted to the Ukrainian Parliament the proposed amendments to the draft law introducing new merger filing thresholds in Ukraine. The amendments have been developed by the AMC in co-operation with competition law experts from the EU and the USA. According to the public statements…
