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…
BY CHARLES TINGLEY, DAVIES WARD PHILLIPS & VINEBERG LLP On February 4, 2015, the Ontario Superior Court of Justice ruled that relevant factual information proffered to the Crown in order to qualify for immunity or leniency under the Competition Bureau’s cartel Immunity and Leniency Programs is not protected from disclosure to accused persons by either…
In an earlier post, of 2 December 2014, in which I reviewed the Competition and Markets Authority’s (“CMA”) draft annual plan for 2015/2016, I observed that (as of that date) the CMA had not, since assuming the functions of the Office of Fair Trading and Competition Commission on 1 April 2014, opened a Phase II…
Three key themes will shape Canadian competition and foreign investment law in 2015. Specifically, we see developments in these areas unfolding in a regulatory environment in which administration and enforcement is increasingly: • consumer-facing: The Competition Bureau’s focus on enforcement in consumer-facing industries will continue into 2015, with policy emphases and recent or open dossiers…
The Canadian government is determined to remedy what it (and many Canadians) regard as an unjustified gap between US and Canadian prices for the same goods. In particular, the government has focussed on what it perceives to be unjustified “country pricing” or “cross-border price discrimination”, ie, businesses charging more for goods sold in Canada than…
On 11 December 2014 Google announced that it would be closing down Google News in Spain. The decision came after the introduction of new copyright legislation supported by the Association of Editors of Spanish Dailies (AEDE) that forces all Spanish news publishers to charge aggregators like Google News for showing short extracts of text from…
One of the functions that trade and professional associations often perform is to help “regulate” the business conduct of their members, often through the vehicle of “codes of ethics”. When properly applied, “self-regulation” of this type can protect consumers, reduce regulatory burdens for industry members, and enhance an industry’s reputation with government bodies and the…
Last week, the Council gave itself another shot at improving the functioning of the General Court of the European Union (the ‘General Court’). And once again, it failed. Following an already disappointing episode in March 2014,[1]Note on a missed opportunity for the administration of justice across Europe. the Council again placed the equality between member…
The High Court has recently provided guidance on the application of limitation periods in competition damages actions. In Arcadia v Visa, it ruled that a substantial part of the claimant’s claim, which dated back to 1977, should be struck out for having been brought too late, so reducing the claimed damages by around £500 million….
