On 21 December 2023, the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) delivered its highly anticipated judgment in the European Super League Company (ESL) case (C-333/21), alongside two other rulings dealing with the application of EU competition and free movement law to sports governance: International Skating Union (ISU) v Commission (C-141/21 P) and SA…
In 2021, an insightful interviewer asked Margrethe Vestager, EU Commissioner for competition law and policy, whether it was “time for a feminist antitrust policy”. The interviewer noted that “feminist policy has been used to denote not just gender equality, but an approach that is more inclusive of all underrepresented people”. In her answer, Vestager set…
General considerations Competition law enforcement in Argentina was not immune to the political context in 2023. This was reflected both in the reduction of decisions taken by the outgoing government because of the presidential elections that started in August and ended in late November, as well as in the drastic changes promised by the new…
This year marked a pivotal chapter in Romanian competition law. Over the past few years, the Romanian Competition Council (the ‘RCC’) has steadily emerged as a prominent player among the most active national competition authorities in the region. This ascent was solidified with new competencies and expanded responsibilities on unfair competition, foreign investment screening, investigation…
On 21 December 2023, the CJEU hit the newspaper headlines after handing down the judgments in Case C-333/21 European Super League Company, Case C-124/21 P International Skating Union v Commission, and Case C-680/21 Royal Antwerp Football Club (see an analysis of those cases from the antitrust perspective here). All three cases raised complex questions regarding the…
On 21st December 2023, the Court of Justice of the European Union (“CJEU”) achieved a “hattrick” with three important judgments on the interplay of sports and EU Law. In particular, the CJEU delivered three judgments on sports governing bodies’ statutes compliance with EU Law, especially EU Competition Law. In its ISU (C-124/21 P), ESL (C-333/21),…
Thank you for another wonderful and eventful year in competition law and policy. Our readership grew and so did the ideas and exchanges on competition law. It is exciting to see the blog progress and your knowledge spread across the world. In 2023, the ten most read blogposts were: Deployers of High-Risk AI Systems: What…
Antitrust authorities around the globe are debating how best to assess sustainability agreements, i.e., agreements to achieve environmental objectives. In the space of a few months in 2023, three leading regulators – the EU Commission, the Dutch Authority for Consumers and Markets, and the UK Competition and Markets Authority adopted guidance on the antitrust assessment…
Overshadowed by the outsize attention surrounding the AI Act Trilogue, the EU passed in late November another regulatory instrument with transformative potential for the digital economy: the Regulation on harmonised rules on fair access to and use of data (Data Act). Admittedly, the Data Act is not as groundbreaking as the AI Act. Far from…
Prompted by concerns about the effectiveness of EU competition law in digital markets, the introduction of the Digital Markets Act (DMA) marks a significant milestone. This forward-looking regulation, focusing on overseeing major digital platforms termed gatekeepers, prioritizes fair competition by treating their services as core platform services. Despite the DMA’s primary reliance on the European…
