Background Another day, another ground-breaking change in Spain’s FDI rules. November 2021 has been an eventful month for FDI in Spain. The following two developments are likely to be consequential in the evolution of the country’s policy as regards foreign investments: (i) More than a year after the establishment of the Spanish 2020 FDI ex-ante…
There is a lot of hype about the Spanish FDI regulations introduced by a number of Royal Decrees in 2020: fines of up to the value of the deal, non-controlling acquisition of shares can potentially trigger a filing, etc. And yet, prior to 2020, Spain already had FDI provisions on the books. These pre-2020 FDI…
When we earlier reported the German Facebook proceedings in terms of a legal opera [Link], this metaphor was, as I am afraid we have to admit, a little ill-fitting. As things now seem, we can observe a whole oeuvre, a whole cinematic universe, as a good number of spin-offs, sequels and side-stories centred around Facebook…
It has been another exciting year in Spanish Merger Control. To the overarching importance of the pandemic, we have to add political appointments, more Phase II investigations and resort to innovative packages of remedies. The Spanish Enforcer in Times of Pandemic In June 2020, the council of the Comisión Nacional de Mercados y de…
The Spanish competition law landscape has been busy in 2020. Below we review the main developments and takeaways from the last year in the following areas: (i) institutions and legislation; (ii) merger control; (iii) restrictive agreements and abuse of dominance; (iv) State aid; and (v) COVID-19. Institutions and Legislation Cani Fernández: New President of…
A welcome post by the new Deputy Editor Introduction and summary In the recent Anesco case, the ECJ held the preliminary request of the Spanish National Commission on Markets and Competition (CNMC) inadmissible due to the fact that the CNMC was not a ‘court or tribunal’ for the purpose of Article 267 TFEU. The ECJ…
2019 was an eventful year in Spanish antitrust enforcement. Here is a brief overview of 2019’s major legal changes and relevant developments in relation to Competition law in Spain, as well as what to expect in 2020. I. New Administration On 8 January 2020, Mr Pedro Sánchez was reappointed as Spanish Prime Minister….
The financial crisis led to the bail out of several banks which were considered to be “too big to fail.” Considering the costs of those bail outs for the European taxpayer and in view of the importance of financial stability for the proper functioning of the EU’s internal market, the EU institutions created a new…
On 7 April 2016, the CNMC (Spain’s National Authority for Markets and Competition) Council imposed fines totalling €6.12 million on six Spanish nougat (“turrón”) producers for agreeing to share the market of the main distributors of white label nougat in Spain between 2011 and 2013[1]CNMC Council Decision of 7 April 2016, Nougat producers, S/DC/0503/14. See…
On 11 December 2014 Google announced that it would be closing down Google News in Spain. The decision came after the introduction of new copyright legislation supported by the Association of Editors of Spanish Dailies (AEDE) that forces all Spanish news publishers to charge aggregators like Google News for showing short extracts of text from…
