On 21 April 2016, the Advocate General Nils Wahl issued his Opinion in Case C-221/15 – a proceeding initiated by a request for preliminary ruling from the Brussels Court of Appeal. The case concerns the compliance of the prohibition upon retailers to sell tobacco products below the price indicated on the tax stamps by manufacturers…
Polish competition authority, the Office of Competition and Consumer Protection (UOKiK), took its stance on the Uber’s innovative business model. As it is its last important statement under President Adam Jasser, I would like to mention him at the end of this entry, especially as the way UOKiK tackled the “Uber problem” is an another…
Ever since the incoming EU Competition Commissioner said that information was the new currency of the internet, antitrust commentators started to spill ink on the topic of Big Data and whether it was a Big Deal. The topic now seems to occupy a place on the agenda of many antitrust conferences – and as recently…
The Global Competition Law Center at the College of Europe and the UCL Center for Law, Economics and Society organize on Wednesday, June 8, 2016 from 9:00 AM to 7:00 PM a scholarship symposium dedicated to COMPETITION POLICY AT THE INTERSECTION OF EQUITY AND EFFICIENCY Honoring the Scholarship of Eleanor M. Fox (NYU) with Eleanor…
Mark Katz and Alysha Manji Introduction Since its arrival in Canada in 2012, Uber has generated heated discussion among affected interests, notably the established taxi industry, regulatory bodies overseeing the industry, and municipal and provincial governments responsible for putting the existing regulatory frameworks into place. In an effort to stave off the impact of its…
In all competition investigations, it is inevitable that the parties under investigation, and often also third parties, will receive numerous information requests and demands to produce documents and provide information. Such requests may be either formal or informal in nature. These are often burdensome, requiring the provision of substantial information and documentation in a short…
Longstanding CCPC dawn raid practice to copy electronic data (including entire email accounts) for later off-site review by investigators is unlawful according to a recent ruling of the Irish Competition Court. Bulk copying of e-files “will almost certainly, perhaps inevitably” capture material outside the scope of any investigation, the court found. Accordingly, CCPC search of…
Once upon a time, but not so long ago, a certain company received a request for information (“RFI”) from the European Commission (in the form of a binding decision). This RFI was nothing like any company had ever seen. It was 90 pages long, contained 11 sets of numerous detailed questions, and demanded a rapid…
Introduction In October 2015, following a phase II investigation, the European Commission published its decision to approve a JV between three of the largest collective management organisations (CMOs) in Europe, PRSfM (UK), GEMA (Germany) and STIM (Sweden).[1]M.6800-PRSfM/ STIM/ GEMA/ JV. As in other recent music industry mergers, the Commission investigated whether the combination of the…
The insurance block exemption regulation (IBER) protects statistical cooperation and certain joint insurance arrangements (inter alia line slips, pools, consortia, joint binding authorities). The EU report examining the IBER’s renewal concludes it is either superfluous or superseded. But the report leaves many practitioners scratching their heads. The report miss-describes industry fundamentals and omits essential practices benefitting…
