Last autumn, the Czech Antitrust Office had announced that it halted its dawn raids. The decision came from – what many felt – was a surprise decision of the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg (ECHR) dated 2 October 2014 (DELTA PEKARNY a.s.). The Court held that the Czech Republic had violated Art. 8…
In January 2015 the European Commission announced its intention to appeal a judgment of the Belgian Commercial Court which dismissed the Commission’s claim for €6 million of damages against Otis, KONE, Schindler and ThyssenKrupp. The Court’s decision illuminates the importance of changes brought about by the recently implemented Damages Directive. Background On 27 February 2007…
It is not uncommon, where a multi-party infringement of competition law has been established and sanctioned by a competition authority for some, but not all, of the addressees of the authority’s decision to appeal that decision. Those appeals can be against the finding of infringement, whether in whole or part, and/or the penalty imposed. Where…
Three recently announced enforcement proceedings underscore the importance of complying with the rules governing advertising and business promotions in Canada. These rules are contained in the Competition Act as well as legislation and policies governing, for example, (i) telemarketing and (ii) the use of “commercial electronic messages” to promote a business’s products and services. 1….
In early November 2014 the Antimonopoly Committee of Ukraine made a statement, announcing that it was going to reconsider its position on the establishment of VimpelCom Ltd., which led to consolidation of the assets of Kyivstar JSC and Ukrainian Radio Systems JSC (the URS) in Ukraine in 2010. As the result of the transaction, Kyivstar…
73d Lunch Talk of the Global Competition Law Center Thursday, March 19, 2015 from 12:00 PM to 2:00 PM Joint and Several Liability for Cartel Fines: Lessons from Gigaset and Siemens Austria Onno BROUWER, Freshfields Ralf SAUER, Legal Service, European Commission Moderator: Bernd MEYRING, Linklaters and GCLC Programme: 12:00 – 12:30: Sandwich lunch and socializing…
In its order passed on 5th August, 2014 the Indian Competition Appellate Tribunal upheld the decision given by the Competition Commission of India (CCI) holding the National Stock Exchange of India Ltd. (NSE) guilty of abusing its dominant position in the market for currency derivatives (“CD”) and imposing a penalty of INR 55 crore. The…
Earlier this month, Advocate General Wahl delivered his opinion in the Deutsche Bahn[1]Case C-583/13P – Deutsche Bahn and others v European Commission (ECLI:EU:C:2014:2365), Opinion of Advocate General Wahl, 12 February 2015. case. This case concerns important practical principles which govern the conduct of European Commission dawn raids (on-the-spot surprise inspections used to investigate possible infringements…
On 26 January 2015, the Dutch competition authority announced its decision that industry-wide initiatives for the “Chicken for Tomorrow” in the Netherlands restrict competition. The ACM reached this conclusion on the basis of extensive economic research assessing the extent to which consumers value the benefits that the “Chicken for Tomorrow” would bring in terms of…
In April 2014, just before the elections, the European Parliament approved in first reading the draft Commission Regulation on the Telecoms Single Market Regulation (“TSM” or “Connected Continent”). One of the provisions covered net neutrality, shortening the list of “exceptional” cases in which ISPs could block or slow down on-line content. Moreover, such “traffic management…
