App stores, Apple, Designation Decision, Digital, Digital competition, Digital economy, Digital markets, Digital Markets Act, European Commission

(University Villanueva, Spain)/ /Leave a comment

The Digital Markets Act (DMA) became entirely applicable on 7 March 2024. By then, the gatekeepers issued their compliance reports documenting their technical solutions and implementation of the DMA’s provisions under Article 11 DMA as well as their reports on consumer profiling techniques as required under Article 15 DMA (see here). During the following week,…

App stores, Apple, Digital competition, Digital economy, Digital markets, Digital Markets Act, European Commission, Fines, Proportionality, Unfair trading practices

(Leiden University)/ /Leave a comment

After almost three years since the Commission sent Apple its statement of objections, which was significantly trimmed down, the Commission reached a finding of abuse for which it imposed a whopping fine of 1.8 billion euros. Alongside this case, Apple was also involved in an almost identical case running parallel in the Netherlands, with similar…

Abuse of dominance, Data Portability, Digital markets, Digital Markets Act, Türkiye

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Introduction On 23 August 2023, the Turkish Competition Authority (“TCA”) announced that it had fined Sahibinden Bilgi Teknolojileri Pazarlama ve Ticaret A.Ş. (“Sahibinden”) for abuse of dominance and required the undertaking to implement certain remedies. The TCA decided  (“Sahibinden Decision”) that Sahibinden had infringed Article 6 of Law No. 4054 on the Protection of Competition…

Chile, Digital markets, Most favoured customer clauses

(Universidad Diego Portales)/ /Leave a comment

Introduction The second half of 2023 was hectic regarding digital markets for the Chilean competition authorities (Fiscalía Nacional Económica or “FNE”, the competition agency, and Tribunal de Defensa de la Libre Competencia or “TDLC”, the competition court). In the context of more local investigations on more complex markets, a new target emerged as an enforcement…

European Union, Foreign subsidies, Foreign Subsidy Regulation, Mergers

(College of Europe, Bruges)/ /Leave a comment

It is often said that one of the greatest things about watching an important character is people wondering when he is going to make his comeback. In 2019, thirteen days after the prohibition of Siemens’ proposed acquisition of Alstom was published by the European Commission, Germany and France issued a public Manifesto ‘for a European industrial…

Apple, Competition law, State aid

(Athens Law School)/ /Leave a comment

On November 9th 2023, the Advocate General (“AG”) Pitruzzella published his Opinion on the Apple state aid case. More specifically, in Commission v Ireland & Apple (Case C‑465/20 P), the AG proposed to the European Court of Justice (“ECJ”) that it annul the General Court’s (“GC”) ruling in the Apple case, refer the cases back…

Advocate General, Brussels Ibis, Undertaking

(Lindenbaum)/ /1 Comment

In an opinion delivered on 11 January 2024, Advocate General Szpunar concludes that the concept of ‘undertaking’ cannot be invoked to determine the parties that can be served legal documents in antitrust damages claims. He clarifies that the concept of undertaking applies to substantive competition law only – to determine the parties who may be…

European Commission, European Union, Foreign direct investment, Legislation

(Norton Rose Fulbright, Belgium)/ /Leave a comment

What a difference five years make. In 2019, the European Union (EU) created a modest common framework for foreign direct investment (FDI) screening, Regulation 2019/452 (the FDI Regulation), stressing that decisions on proposed investments, and even the decision whether to engage in FDI screening at all, remained with EU Member States. A pandemic and two…

Amazon, App stores, Apple, Apps, Digital competition, Digital economy, Digital markets, Digital Markets Act, Europe, European Commission, Ex ante regulation, Facebook, Google

(University Villanueva, Spain)/ /Leave a comment

The Digital Markets Act (DMA) is now applicable. Following the 6-month interim period where gatekeepers had the opportunity to adapt their business models to the regulation, the DMA now requires them to prove their effective compliance with its provisions. To do that, on 7 March 2024, the six designated gatekeepers in September (see here) presented…

World Competition Law and Economics Review

(Bird and Bird, Belgium)/ /Leave a comment

We are happy to inform you that the latest issue of the journal is now available and includes the following contributions: Giorgio Monti, EU Merger Control After the Grand Chamber’s Judgment in Commission v. CK Telecoms Investments The Grand Chamber set aside the judgment of the General Court in CK Telecoms having found eight errors…