“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,…
2023 was the year in which fines in the ongoing “hub & spoke war” reached the staggering amount of € 733 million. An accomplishment haunted by the rulings from the Constitutional Court finding that the Competition Authority have been conducting dawn raids (including in the hub & spoke cases) illegally. This was also the year…
On 9 January 2024, Apple offered several commitments under Article 9 Regulation 1/2003 to address the competition concerns of the European Commission in the markets for mobile wallets on iOS, inter alia to ensure effective interoperability with the Near Field Communication (NFC) functionality on iOS. This post will give an initial overview of Apple’s proposed…
As the deadline for compliance with the provisions of the Digital Markets Act is fast approaching, the designated gatekeepers are progressively proposing and implementing changes to their business models (for an extensive analysis of the designated CPSs see here and here). Apple’s recent announcement proposes to implement changes on its operating system (iOS), web browser…
The Czech Competition Authority (CCA) recently announced that it prepared a proposal to update the Czech Competition Act (the “Act”). While at present the proposal is just a set of ideas, it indicates how Czech competition enforcement may evolve in the years to come. Crucially, the CCA suggests deploying a “new competition tool” that will…
In this post, I will provide a brief overview of the main 2023 competition law and policy developments in five Western Balkan countries: Serbia, Montenegro, Bosnia and Herzegovina, North Macedonia, and Albania. What connects these jurisdictions is that they are all outside the EU and are at the same time heavily influenced by EU law…
Legislative developments Following the amendment of the Anti-Monopoly Law (AML) in 2022, the State Administration for Market Regulation (SAMR) unveiled a series of departmental regulations in March 2023: (1) Provisions on Prohibiting Monopoly Agreements; (2) Provisions on Prohibiting Abuse of Dominant Market Position; (3) Provisions on the Examination of Concentrations of Undertakings; (4) Provisions on…
2023 brought us a lot of developments in competition law and policy on the EU level. After 2020, 2021, and 2022, we continue to keep you up to date with the latest developments. Article 101 TFEU Have we figured out by object and by effect yet? For their master or PhD thesis, students tend…
The Competition Chapter of the EU-Georgia Association Agreement sets the obligation for the Parties to maintain “comprehensive competition laws” and to have an “appropriately equipped, effective authority”. The Georgian Competition and Consumer Agency (“GCCA”) is a designated authority enforcing the Law of Georgia “On Competition” and related bylaws since its establishment in 2014. Georgian competition legislation…
Following an eventful year for the Icelandic Competition Authority (“ICA”) as well as Icelandic Courts regarding competition enforcement and merger control, the year of 2023 started out quietly. However, the latter part of the year provided for some major decisions by both the ICA and the Competition Appeals Committee with competition enforcement matters being kept…
