As authorities worldwide step up enforcement of their merger control rules, companies planning deals in 2018 must pay even closer attention to their obligations and conduct throughout the period from early planning up to final merger control clearance. We are seeing more authorities impose heavy fines for an increasingly wide range of pre-clearance conduct, with…
This case relates to the interplay between EU competition law and the pharmaceutical regulatory regime. It arose in the context of an arrangement in which Genentech licensed Bevacizumab to one company in the field of Ophthalmology (‘Lucentis’) and to another company for the treatment of cancers (‘Avastin’). There was a delay in obtaining an MA…
The European Commission’s recent focus on the impact of mergers on innovation competition has sparked a heated debate amongst lawyers and economists. Innovation seems to have become the new “Greater Good” the Commission is pursuing when reviewing mergers, whether in the pharmaceutical or medical device sectors, in pesticides, engineering, ICT or other technology-driven industries. The…
On 19 December 2017 the Federal Administrative Court issued three judgments reversing the sanctions against the producers Pfizer, Eli Lilly and Bayer imposed by the Competition Commission which totaled in CHF 5.7 million. The court concludes that the non-binding price recommendations published by the three pharmaceutical companies did not restrict competition but rather prevented excessive…
Most merger control regimes provide for so-called stand-still obligations, i.e. the parties cannot implement the transaction until the necessary merger clearances have been received from the relevant competition authorities. This means in particular that the acquiring company cannot starting controlling the target’s business prior to closing – no “gun jumping” is allowed. Competition authorities have…
Dispute Resolution This article “fact-checks” the “Notice to Stakeholders” published by the European Commission on November 21, 2017[1] (the “Notice”). The Notice has received widespread press attention, due to its stark warnings about the risks of choosing to litigate in the English Courts post-Brexit. We consider whether the Notice is factually accurate (yes), whether it…
The Bulgarian Commission for Protection of Competition (“CPC”) has imposed fines on two out of the three integrated electricity companies in Bulgaria, part of the Austrian EVN group and the Czech CEZ group. The CPC initiated investigations against the three Bulgarian electricity distribution companies – CEZ, Energo-Pro and EVN and their affiliated end suppliers and…
On December 19, 2017, the Federal Cartel Office (“FCO”) published a press release on its preliminary assessment in the ongoing Facebook dominance probe, accompanied by a background paper (available in English here). The FCO considers that Facebook abuses its dominant position through imposing unfair general terms and conditions (“t&cs”). The published materials provide some interesting…
Following a considerable delay and a threat by the European Commission to initiate infringement proceedings, Bulgaria finally implemented in its national law the provisions of the European Directive 2014/104/EU on Antitrust Damages Actions dated 26 November 2014 (the “Private Damages Directive”). On 3 January 2018 in the Bulgarian State Gazette was promulgated the Act for…
The views expressed are exclusively the authors and do not necessarily reflect the opinion of CADE. I. Introduction The Brazilian Competition Authority (known as “CADE” – Conselho Administrativo de Defesa Econômica) is currently analyzing a landmark case regarding the interface between competition law and intellectual property (IP). The case is known as “Anfape” (acronym for…
