Competition

(Sidley Austin LLP )/ /Leave a comment

In the context of antitrust and cartel investigations, electronic data or computer-generated information often has the highest evidential value and potentially the highest impact on the outcome of the investigation. For this reason, when conducting surprise inspections at the premises of a suspected undertaking, electronic data is often the first target of the Commission. Companies…

Cartels

(Babić & Partners )/ /Leave a comment

Almost two years into application of the new Croatian Competition Act (“Act”), the Croatian Competition Agency (“CCA“) has for the first time penalized undertakings involved in anticompetitive conduct. Under the previously applicable Competition Act (in force between 2003 and 2010), the CCA was authorized solely to establish a violation of competition law. A separate fining…

Antitrust

(Hogan Lovells )/ /Leave a comment

Over the last decade, the patent landscape has been dramatically altered by the rise of entities whose business model is to acquire significant patent portfolios and aggressively pursue license fees from businesses selling products that may infringe on some of those patents. Such companies are known as “non-practicing entities” (NPEs) or “patent assertion entities” (or,…

Competition, Pricing

(RBB Economics )/ /Leave a comment

According to standard economic theory, unfettered free markets lead to an efficient allocation of resources.  Importantly, this result is generally taken to hold only insofar as market failures are absent.  One of these failures, market power, is defined as the ability to elevate prices above competitive levels for a significant period of time.  Generally speaking,…

Sector inquiries, United Kingdom

(Max Findlay Associates, United Kingdom)/ /Leave a comment

Right now, the leitmotif in the competition world is the anger of the ordinary citizen. You thought this was an arena dominated by sober minded analysts, regulators and business executives? Think again. Take, for instance, the investigation into Britain’s retail road fuel industry – worth about £32bn – currently being conducted by the UK’s Office…

Antitrust

(bpv Grigorescu Ştefănică )/ /Leave a comment

On 19th of April 2011, the Romanian Competition Council (the “RCC”) closed the investigation against the Romanian Football Federation and its members, as well as against the Football Professional League and its members regarding the potential breach of the Romanian and European antitrust rules by joint commercialisation of the commercial rights on football competitions, following…

Enforcement, Mergers

(Finnish Competition Authority, Finland)/ /Leave a comment

Many new economic analysis tools have been introduced, particularly for merger analysis during the last decade. Some of these tools have also raised considerable public interest. For instance, probably not many have avoided hearing of the UPP test, and undoubtedly many are already familiar with the meaning of the abbreviations GUPPI, IPR and CMCR. The…

Dominance, United Kingdom

(Sidley Austin LLP)/ /Leave a comment

In early July this year, the UK’s specialist competition court, the Competition Appeal Tribunal (“CAT”), adopted a judgment (“Judgment”) in which it awarded a claimant (2 Travel) exemplary damages in relation to predatory pricing abuses engaged in by its dominant rival, Cardiff Bus.[1]2 Travel Group PLC (in liquidation) v Cardiff City Transport Services Limited {2012}…

Dominance

(Djingov, Gouginski, Kyutchukov & Velichkov )/ /Leave a comment

More than one year ago, in response to complaints from local suppliers alleging abusive practices in the distribution chain of FMCG, the Ministry of Economy set up a Joint Task Group (JTG) to investigate whether legislative intervention was required. The JTG was fast to conclude that competition is distorted due to the existence of undertakings…