Consumer welfare, Germany

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

The Federal Cartel Office (FCO) held a conference with antitrust experts (professors and judges) on October 6. 2016, on “Competition and Consumer Conduct – Conflict or Parallelism between Consumer protection and Antitrust Law?” As part of the conference, the FCO published a background paper on the same topic, available in German, see http://www.bundeskartellamt.de/DE/UeberUns/Veranstaltungen/ArbeitskreisKartellrecht/arbeitskreiskartellrecht_node.html I. Background…

Antitrust, Hong Kong

, (Hogan Lovells)/ /1 Comment

Speaking at a recent conference in Hong Kong, the President of the Hong Kong Competition Tribunal, Mr Justice Godfrey Lam, examined whether parties might seek remedies for anti-competitive acts in Hong Kong based on common law economic torts without relying on follow-on actions under the Competition Ordinance. A follow-on action is a private action for…

ICN

(Chamber of Commerce of the United States of America)/ /Leave a comment

For the past several years, antitrust/competition law practitioners from more than 30 countries have participated in surveys developed by fellow practitioners, who serve as Non-Government Advisers to the International Competition Network (“ICN”). Past surveys were done to inform the ICN Agency Effectiveness Working Group and its Investigative Process Project (in 2014, the survey work was awarded…

Brexit, United Kingdom

(Monckton Chambers)/ /Leave a comment

A Brexit Competition Law Working Group has been formed, chaired by Sir John Vickers.  The other members are Jon Turner QC, Amelia Fletcher, John Fingleton, Sir Nicholas Forwood, Ali Nikpay and Richard Whish. The aim of the group is to stimulate debate and develop practical policy suggestions for Government on issues for UK competition law…

France, Mergers

(Hogan Lovells)/ /Leave a comment

On 8 November 2016, the French Competition Authority (FCA) fined French-based Altice group and its telecommunications subsidiary SFR 80 million euros for the coordination of their commercial behaviour in the period between the acceptance of Altice’s purchase offer of SFR and the FCA’s merger clearance decision. This is the highest fine ever imposed by a…

Germany, Mergers

(Baker McKenzie)/ /Leave a comment

On 21 September 2016, the German Government has introduced a formal legislative proposal (Gesetzesvorschlag – “Government Proposal”) for the reform of the Act against Restraint of Competition (“ARC”; 9th amendment) which builds on the draft proposal (Referentenentwurf – “Ministerial Draft”) of the Federal Ministry of Economics.  It still includes the proposed extension of German merger…

Damages, European Commission

, (RBB Economics)/ /Leave a comment

In October 2016, the Commission published a new study on the passing on of overcharges.  A key objective for the Study is to provide judges and other practitioners who are not economic experts with clear insight into the economics of pass-on and the methods that can be used to quantify passing-on and volume effects.  The…

Abuse of dominance, European Union

(Baker & McKenzie)/ /Leave a comment

If AG Kokott in Post Danmark II was a 102 hawk – ordoliberal-redux, fossilizing form over function, economics on the “too difficult pile” for authorities and courts – then AG Wahl firmly sets out his stall as the 102 economics dove (§117, fn 87).  Less of an opinion, more of a manifesto.  It calls for…

Mergers, Ukraine

(Arzinger)/ /Leave a comment

  Given the very low notification thresholds in Ukraine, which caught even foreign-to-foreign transactions that in the majority of cases raised no antitrust concerns and did not have local nexus, a number of parties skipped local notification and breached the law. In some cases the agency has pursed companies for failure to notify, and these…

State aid, Ukraine

(Asters)/ /Leave a comment

Under the EU-Ukraine Association Agreement (Association Agreement), Ukraine is required to roll out state aid regulation in convergence with the EU acquis. The European-style regulation – to be effective from 2 August 2017 – will be based on the Association Agreement itself, the Law of Ukraine on State Aid to Undertakings No. 1555-VII of 1…