Google’s behaviour in the advertising technology sector (Ad Tech) is under attack or, at the very least, it is being intensely scrutinised on both sides of the Atlantic. Google is already subject to several antitrust suits in the U.S. lodged against it by the Department of Justice (DoJ) and individual States. In the European Union,…

On 18 May and 22 June 2022, the EU General Court upheld two European Commission prohibition decisions. Both judgments endorsed the European Commission’s assessment of the mergers at issue, recognising a broad margin of discretion in the European Commission’s evaluation of the concentrations’ effects and the remedies.   Key takeaways The EU General Court (“GC”)…

On 18 November 2021, the China competition authority State Administration for Market Regulation (“SAMR”) released the decision that the acquisition of Illinois Tool Works Inc. (”ITW“) over MTS Systems Corporation (“MTS”) is conditionally approved (the “Decision”) [1]. It is the third merger case cleared with remedies by the SAMR in 2021. But what is eye-catching…

Competition authorities are increasingly scrutinizing Google around the globe: The European Commission was the first authority to investigate Google and has issued three record-level fines in Google Shopping, Google Android and Google AdSense. In the US, the DoJ has recently filed a complaint against Google with the US Supreme Court arguing that Google abuses its…

Few days ahead of a historic presidential election, the political pressure accrues and has already made one collateral casualty: Google. David Cicilline (D-RI) has issued a House Report where big tech companies, including Google, are threatened to be broken up. In the same week, Trump’s Attorney General William Barr launched a lawsuit against Google with…

The judgment provides useful jurisdictional clarifications for deals involving joint ventures (JVs) acting as an acquirer. The General Court (GC) confirms that when the true players behind the transaction are the parent companies, rather than the JV — because they did the deal valuation, negotiated the transaction structure, and determined the purchase price — the…

Most competition authorities have a preference for structural remedies in merger cases in the form of divestitures while behavioural remedies are used less frequently. The below blog post analyses whether the historical bias of behavioural remedies is still warranted or whether it is time that authorities take a more flexible and differentiated approach when considering…

Combinations, in the form of acquisitions, merger and amalgamations crossing specified assets or turnover thresholds in India are subject to review by the Competition Commission of India (CCI). Most combinations, however, do not raise competition concerns and even if they do, a combination can still be approved subject to modification made to the combination. As…