Introduction Competition law is a fundamental component of market regulation designed to prevent anti-competitive practices that can harm both consumers and the overall market structure. Traditionally, these laws have focused on agreements between competitors in specific industries. However, recent developments have extended the reach of competition law into labour markets, where violations can have equally…
Many competition authorities would have given up on excessive pricing cases when the Competition Appeal Tribunal (the Tribunal) annulled a fine of more than £80m which the UK Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) had imposed on Pfizer and Flynn for increasing prices for Phenytoin sodium capsules by 700-2,600%. Many, but not the CMA. The UK’s…
On 24 July 2023, the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) issued a very relevant award in case CAS 2023/O/9370 Professional Football Agents Association (PROFAA) v. FIFA (the Award), in which it examined various claims of illegality of the new FIFA Football Agents Regulations (FFAR) under several areas of law, most importantly those under EU…
Introduction On 29 June 2023, the European Court of Justice (ECJ or Court) issued its judgment in case C-211/22, where it reiterates the legal framework applicable to vertical price fixing agreements under EU competition law. The focus on the need to assess the legal and economic context in which the agreement is celebrated is particularly…
General considerations During 2022 there have been no changes regarding the competition law since it was last enacted in 2018. The bill approved by the Senate in February 2021 amending certain aspects of the law, was not discussed at the House of Deputies during 2022 and is expected to lose parliamentary status in February 2023….
The European Commission’s horizontal guidelines are an invaluable tool for practitioners in antitrust compliance work. The team at Unit A1 in DG COMP have done a great job at further developing the guidelines in the new draft that was published for stakeholder comments on 1 March 2022. Today, the EU & Competition team at Szecskay…
The following is a selection of some of the most important developments in German competition law and policy in 2021. It has been a busy year for the Federal Cartel Office (“FCO”), inter alia because the new rules for digital companies took effect. The following covers cases under these new rules, abuse of dominance, merger…
Introduction On 27 May 2020 the Dutch Authority for Consumers and Markets (“ACM”) imposed a fine of € 82 million on four cigarette manufacturers for indirect information exchanges in violation of Article 101 TFEU and 6 Dutch Competition Act. It is the first fine ACM has given for indirect information exchanges between competitors. The manufacturers…
Introduction The Swiss Competition Commission (“ComCo”) fined Stöckli Swiss Sports (“Stöckli”), a Swiss manufacturer of Skis and other sport products, for vertical price fixing with its dealers with CHF 140’000. The fine was rather low, as Stöckli had filed a leniency application, albeit after ComCo having opened the investigation, and a settlement was reached. The settlement…
On 20 July 2018, the new Chinese antitrust authority – the State Administration for Market Regulation (SAMR) – published two decisions sanctioning two ship tallying companies in Shenzhen for market partitioning and price fixing (see the Shenzhen Tally decisions here). Although the case is local and the decisions are short, the decisions have the potential…
