Ireland

(The Economic and Social Research Institute, Trinity College Dublin)/ /Leave a comment

Introduction With great alacrity Ireland’s Competition and Consumer Protection Commission (CCPC) has intervened successfully to hold the Irish Property Owners’ Association (IPOA), an association of undertakings, to account for potentially anti-competitive behaviour. Notwithstanding the CCPC’s prompt action, its conduct nevertheless raises issues: (i) weak or under enforcement of competition law, given the IPOA’s past behaviour;…

India

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As part of any antitrust/competition analysis, one pertinent question that arises is the decision whether there is a single market that includes both, the equipment and its complimentary products and services, or separate markets, ergo, “primary market” for equipment and one or more “aftermarkets” or “secondary markets” for complementary products or services supplied by both…

Damages, Sweden

(Delphi)/ /Leave a comment

The Swedish implementation of the Directive on Antitrust Damages Actions (the “Directive”) is  in force as of 27 December 2016 with the entering into force of the Swedish Competition Damages Act (Sw. Konkurrensskadelag (2016:964)) (the “Act”).  The previous provisions on competition damages in the Swedish Competition Act (Sw. Konkurrenslag (2008:579)) have thereby ceased to apply…

Belarus

(IPM-Consult)/ /Leave a comment

A new antitrust authority has been in place since September 2016 in Belarus – The Ministry of antimonopoly regulation and trade (hereinafter – MART). A previous regulator – The Ministry of economy will be in charge of natural monopolies and the creation of holdings. Antimonopoly and price regulation were transferred to one authority because of…

Antitrust, Competition, Investigations, Leniency, United Kingdom

(St Johns Chambers, United Kingdom)/ /Leave a comment

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…

Cartels, Ukraine

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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…

Germany, Resale price maintenance

(Heinz & Zagrosek Partner mbB, Germany)/ /Leave a comment

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…

Poland, Unfair practices

(WKB Wierciński, Kwieciński, Baehr, Poland)/ /Leave a comment

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…

European Court of Justice

, (Bristows LLP)/ /Leave a comment

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…

Bulgaria

(Dimitrov, Petrov & Co.)/ /Leave a comment

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…