The new U.S. Horizontal Merger Guidelines, issued in August 2010, introduce the so-called GUPPI test, the Gross Upward Pricing Pressure Index. According to the U.S. Guidelines, “[a]dverse unilateral price effects can arise when the merger gives the merged entity an incentive to raise the price of a product previously sold by one merging firm and…
Co-authored by: David Little The U.K. Court of Appeal has recently rebuffed an attempt by Plaintiff’s firm, Hausfeld, to bring a collective “opt out” style action using Rule 19.6 of the CPR rules (Emerald Supplied Limited v. British Airways [2010] EWCA Civ. 1284). The claim arose from the European Commission’s investigation into the alleged air cargo…
One of the ‘novelties’ of the Guidelines on the applicability of Article 101 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union to horizontal co-operation agreements, released by the Commission on Dec. 14, 2010 (“Guidelines”), is a whole new chapter devoted to exchanges of information. The Commission claims that such new section “is the…
At the end of September, the press reported briefly on the understanding reached between Apple and the European Commission. According to these reports, Apple has agreed to ending two alleged anticompetitive practices in relation to one of its flagship products, the iPhone: Apple will enable the owners of an iPhone purchased in one EU Member…
The third of a series of three postings on antitrust and the financial crisis: between hope and modesty, the financial crisis as a reminder of antitrust as a discipline.
The second of a series of three postings on antitrust and the financial crisis: to what extent was/will competition law enforcement (be) affected by the financial crisis?
More than six years after the case was launched, the General Court rendered its judgment in Case T-279/04, Editions Odile Jacob Sas v. Commission, relating to the appeal against a 2004 decision of the European Commission approving the acquisition by French publisher Lagardère of its rival Vivendi Universal Publishing (“VUP”). The saga begins in 2002,…
The first of a series of three postings on antitrust and the financial crisis: did antitrust, in general, and a “lack of enforcement”, in particular, contribute to the financial crisis?
It is commonly accepted that, pursuant to the principle of intragroup immunity, Article 101 TFEU cannot catch agreements or concerted practices between entities that belong to the same undertaking. Article 101 TFEU requires coordination between at least two undertakings: everything that happens within a single undertaking simply cannot be covered by Article 101 TFEU. Yet,…
The European Commission is currently preparing new guidelines for the assessment of horizontal cooperation agreements under Article 101 TFEU. A draft was presented for public consultation in May this year and the final version is expected before year’s end. The section on standardisation agreements has been updated in the light of recent experiences (such as…
