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…
Much ink has already been spilled on various aspects of the landmark Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers (DMCC) Bill.[1] This post focuses only on parental liability, which appears not to have received much attention. Under the current draft of the DMCC Bill, both the digital markets and consumer protection proposals envisage lifting the corporate veil…
We are happy to inform you that the latest issue of the journal is now available and includes the following contributions: Wouter P.J. Wils, EU Antitrust Fines and Managerial Liability – A Legal and Economic Analysis Should companies that have been fined for EU antitrust infringements be allowed to recover such fines from their…
TikTok’s parent company, ByteDance, is currently bluffing before the EU Courts in the face of its gatekeeper designation decision issued by the Commission last September (the Decision). On 15 November 2023, ByteDance confirmed that it was appealing the Decision before the General Court, and a couple of days after that, the Court of Justice acknowledged…
Introduction On 13 November 2023, the District Court of Rotterdam (“Court”) handed down its judgment in the Samsung case. This ruling gives insights on whether a supplier, by actively pursuing its resale price recommendations can be held to restrict competition by object, even if its conduct does not involve any sanctions (or threat thereof) or…
On 9 November 2023, the European Court of Justice (ECJ) confirmed that the European Commission (EC) was right to impose two separate fines on Altice for breaching standstill rules and failing to notify its acquisition of PT Portugal, but lowered the fine for failure to notify by €3.1 million. The European Union (EU) merger control…
The Honorable Delhi High Court has recently in the case of Telefonaktiebolaget LM Ericsson (PUBL) v. Competition Commission of India held that when a patent is issued in India, the Competition Commission of India (CCI) cannot inquire into the actions of a patentee in the exercise of its power under the Competition Act, 2002. The…
On 30 October 2023, the British Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) published its new prioritisation principles. These principles aim to guide the CMA’s choice of work when enforcing the competition rules, particularly as the CMA does not have the resources to act in all instances. Seemingly little has changed in the text since the previous…
