On 9 November 2023, the European Court of Justice (ECJ) confirmed that the European Commission (EC) was right to impose two separate fines on Altice for breaching standstill rules and failing to notify its acquisition of PT Portugal, but lowered the fine for failure to notify by €3.1 million. The European Union (EU) merger control…

As Ariel Ezrachi and Maurice E. Stucke noted, just as duck hunters must anticipate the future position of their prey, antitrust policymakers are urged to foresee potential anti-competitive behaviours rather than solely focusing on past constraints. This concept of anticipating potential anti-competitive behaviours has now firmly landed on the desks of policymakers, and the last…

On October 12, 2023, the European Commission (EC) ordered Illumina to unwind its already completed acquisition of the cancer test provider GRAIL Inc. This is the first time that the EC has ordered a reversal of an acquisition. This decision opens a new chapter in the ongoing Illumina/GRAIL saga, which has been unfolding for well…

Introduction On September 26th, the European Commission prohibited the acquisition of the online flight booking service eTraveli by Booking Holdings, the leading provider of online hotel bookings in the European Economic Area (EEA). The Commission argues that the acquisition would have strengthened Booking’s dominant position in the market for online hotel bookings by enabling it…

Effective 24 May 2023 the Moroccan legislator introduced new, increased merger control notification thresholds. While the increase in notification thresholds is welcome, the more relevant change is that the new turnover thresholds always require that the parties have turnover in Moroccan. While this change does not entirely resolve existing problems with a lack of local…

The Indian merger control framework is governed by the Competition Act, 2002 (Act) and The Competition Commission of India (Procedure in regard to the transaction of business relating to combinations) Regulations, 2011 (Combination Regulations). To re-align with evolving regulatory needs and streamline processes, Combination Regulations have been reformed periodically. Earlier this year, the Competition (Amendment)…

The EU Foreign Subsidies Regulation took effect on 12 July 2023 to much fanfare. We take a look at the top five things PE funds need to know when considering acquisitions with a European footprint. The Foreign Subsidies Regulation (“FSR”) is the European Commission’s attempt to level the playing field for M&A deals by creating…

On 14 July 2023, the European Commission launched its second template relating to the gatekeeper’s compliance with Article 14 of the DMA (the Template), i.e., their obligation to inform about any intended concentration involving core platform services or any other services in the digital sector or enabling the collection of data (Article 14(1) of the…

The long-awaited European Court of Justice’s judgment in Towercast confirmed that national competition authorities (and national courts) can apply abuse of dominance rules to mergers that did not trigger EU and national merger control thresholds and were not referred to the European Commission under Article 22 of the EU Merger Regulation. However, uncertainties still remain….

Are big companies necessarily bad? If they are, how can we ensure that companies do not become too big and too bad? How can markets remain free, fair and competitive? Competition law has tried to answer these questions for centuries, with the most recent debates revolving around the alleged anti-competitive conduct of large tech companies….