Data protection, Digital, Digital competition, Digital economy, Digital markets, Digital Markets Act, European Commission

(University Villanueva, Spain)/ /Leave a comment

The D-day for the Digital Markets Act (DMA) compliance is fast approaching. Starting from March 2024, the regulatory framework’s substantive obligations will start to apply to the six designated gatekeepers concerning 22 of their core platform services (on the first designation decisions issued by the European Commission see here). In the meantime, the European Commission…

Competition Law 2023, Peru

(Universidad de Lima)/ /Leave a comment

2023 was certainly an eventful year for competition law and policy in Peru. Its Competition Agency, the National Institute for the Defense of Competition and the Protection of Intellectual Property (INDECOPI, after its Spanish acronym) was not immune from the instability of Peruvian politics. Two months after the failed coup d’état perpetrated by Pedro Castillo,…

Abuse of dominance, Bulgaria, Effects-based, Parallel imports, Pharmaceuticals, Regulation

(Eversheds Sutherland, Bulgaria)/ /Leave a comment

At the end of 2023, the Bulgarian Commission for Protection of Competition (“CPC”) issued a key decision related to an abuse of dominance case in the pharmaceutical sector. The decision, which is expected to have a significant impact on the parallel export of pharmaceuticals, provides a clue to the CPC’s approach when parallel export concerns…

Labour market, United Kingdom

, , , , , (White & Case) and (White & Case, Belgium)/ /Leave a comment

The UK’s Competition and Markets Authority (the “CMA”) has published a research report on competition and market power in labour markets. The report is likely to reinforce the CMA’s determination to use its competition law powers to tackle anti-competitive behaviour in labour markets, as well as the case for broader legislative reform.   The report…

Antitrust, European Court of Justice, European Union, Professional body, Sport

(University of Oxford, Somerville College)/ /Leave a comment

Introduction On 21 December 2023 the Court changed its interpretation of EU competition law. The three judgments handed down that day asked as many questions as they answered, and it was obvious that further clarification would be required. Already in January 2024 two further rulings – Case C‑128/21 Lietuvos notarų rūmai, and others and Case…

Abuse of dominance, European Commission, Fines, Rebates, res judicata

(CNRS)/ /Leave a comment

On 22 September 2023, the European Commission adopted a decision imposing a fine of €376.36 million on microprocessor manufacturer Intel. This decision relates to the facts that had already been sanctioned in an earlier decision of 13 May 2009. How can this apparent inconsistency be explained? In fact, the first decision was annulled in January…

Artificial Intelligence, Digital competition, Digital markets, Digital Markets Act

(University Villanueva, Spain)/ /Leave a comment

Foundation models are not new to society or technological development. The deep neural network and self-supervised learning they are based on have existed for decades. However, the explosion and ramping up in user adoption of apps based on Large Language Models (LLMs) working on natural language processing (NLP) has shaken the whole tech industry during…

China, Killer acquisitions, Mergers

(Hogan Lovells, China)/ /Leave a comment

Looking back on the year 2023, this note aims to give an update on the state of play in Chinese merger control. In particular, it looks at how merger control has evolved since China’s main antitrust statute – the Anti-Monopoly Law (“AML”) – was amended for the first time in summer 2022. I will look…

Antitrust, France, Sustainability, Trade associations

(Kapellmann)/ /Leave a comment

The French competition authority, the Autorité de la Concurrence, has recently published a cartel decision (see here) which deals with a cartel of industry associations and their members with regard to product qualities and product information. The case is an important reminder to industry associations and companies of the boundaries between antitrust compliant lobbying and…

Cartels, Damages, Estimation, Germany, Private enforcement

(CDC Cartel Damage Claims Consulting)/ /Leave a comment

“The estimated damage cannot be less than 5% of the purchase price paid for reasons of effectiveness under EU law.” This was recently stated by the German Federal Court of Justice about claims for damages due to the Dieselgate scandal. However, the Court’s reasoning in favour of this legal lower limit for damages might equally,…