In its recent draft annual plan, the Competition and Markets Authority (“CMA”) committed itself “to further step up the pace, scale and impact of our enforcement against anticompetitive or unfair practices.” It therefore intends to increase, to at least six, the number of new civil investigations it undertakes under Chapter I of the Competition Act…
On 28 October 2016, the Antimonopoly Committee of Ukraine (AMC) fined seven companies, including Shell and SOCAR, a total of approx. EUR 7 million for alleged concerted practices. The AMC decision comes after investigation finding that the road fuel companies were tacitly coordinating prices from 2013 to 2016. The allegations base on ‘parallel behaviour’ observed…
On January 25, 2017, the FCO published its long-awaited draft notice with guidance on resale price maintenance (RPM) related questions in the food retail sector in Germany. The draft is up for public consultation, and interested parties can submit comments by March 20, 2017. It is available on the FCO’s website, including in English, see…
The Act on Combating Unfair Use of Contractual Advantage in Trading in Agricultural and Food Products (the “Act”) will enter into force in the mid-2017. The objective of the Act is to eliminate unfair trade practices between purchasers and producers (suppliers) of agricultural food products at every stage of the supply chain. The new legislation…
Introduction On a number of occasions the Court of Justice (CJEU) has been tasked with deciding how familiar concepts of competition law apply to novel facts. In Eturas (Case C-74/14, judgment of 21 January 2016), questions of how concerted practices should be considered in the online world were referred to the CJEU for a preliminary…
At the very end of 2016, the Bulgarian Supreme Administrative Court in its first-instance 3-member panel, confirmed one of the highest fines ever imposed by the Bulgarian Commission for Protection of Competition (CPC) back in 2012. The decision was issued following an investigation of the distribution network for Hyundai motor vehicles in Bulgaria which resulted…
After the Bulgarian Commission for Protection of Competition (CPC) imposed a sanction on Siemens EOOD for abuse of superior bargaining position in May 2016, at the end of the year the regulating authority imposed a second sanction under the controversial provision introduced in 2015. The sanctioned undertaking is Kaufland Bulgaria EOOD & CO KD (Kaufland)…
Are perceptions of increased pushback in Brussels and Washington on international combinations reflected in Irish enforcement? What change (if any) does new management at the Irish agency herald, how did Ireland’s most controversial deal of the year fare in Brussels, and what important change might a remedies settlement in August 2016 signal? Answers below! …
In a decision adopted on 16 December 2016 and made public on 4 January 2017, the Chinese Ministry of Commerce (“MOFCOM“) fined Japanese company Canon for failure to file its acquisition of Toshiba Medical Systems (“Toshiba Medical“) for merger control clearance under the Anti-Monopoly Law (“AML“). This decision sends an important message to the business…
On 5 December 2016, the National Development and Reform Commission (“NDRC“) – one of the three Chinese antitrust authorities – issued its decision fining the local unit of Medtronic, a U.S.-listed medical device maker, for resale price maintenance (“RPM“). Case summary Medtronic was found to maintain a distribution system for cardiovascular, rehabilitation therapy and…
