Dawn raids are back with a vengeance. In October 2021, when COVID-19 restrictions were being lifted, EVP M. Vestager stressed that after a two-year hiatus mandated by the pandemic, dawn raids were back (see here for the speech). After carrying out dawn raids in the fashion and the wood pulp industries, she warned that this…
Introduction On 6 November 2023, the Austrian Federal Competition Authority (“FCA“) published its updated standpoint on settlements. The original standpoint dates back to 2014. Shortly after the first settlement at the European level had taken place in 2010, Austria had its first settlement in the “brewery case” in 2012. This was quickly followed by a…
Introduction On February 21, 2020, the European Commission (EC), in the context of Case AT.40528 – Holiday Pricing, ordered Meliá Hotels International, S.A. to pay a fine in the total amount of EUR 6 678 000. The European Commission found that Meliá Hotels International, S.A. participated in a single and continuous infringement of Article 101…
In October 2023, Advocate General Rantos delivered his opinion in the context of a preliminary ruling request from Portuguese courts on whether an exchange of information between competitors can constitute a restriction of competition by “object” in breach of Article 101(1) of the TFEU. In practice, such classification relieves a competition authority from the obligation…
The Digital Markets Act has been analysed from a myriad of prisms, both from the public and private enforcement perspectives. However, less attention has been dedicated to analysing the actual content of private enforcement via collective actions, as set out explicitly in Articles 42 and 52 of the DMA. Article 42 DMA establishes that “Directive…
On November 3rd 2023, the University of Vienna, Department of European, International and Comparative Law, together with the European Circle for Competition Damages and the Austrian Society for European Law (ÖGER) hosted a conference on the relevant issue of disclosing evidence in antitrust damages proceedings. Roughly ten years after the European Damages Directive had been…
On 26 July 2023, the Autoritat Catalana de la Competència (a regional competition authority in Spain; hereinafter, the ACCO) issued an infringement decision against the Asociación Profesional Elite Taxi (Professional Association Elite Taxi; hereinafter, Elite Taxi) for a boycott conduct which had as its object the digital platform business pioneer, UBER. This latest decision follows…
On 7 November 2023, a new amendment law to the German Competition Act (“Gesetz gegen Wettbewerbsbeschränkungen”, GWB) came into force. Because it is the 11th major amendment, it is commonly referred to as the 11th GWB Amendment (11. GWB-Novelle). In addition to numerous small alterations, it is particularly noteworthy for three important novelties: New…
Next 16 November 2023, the deadline for the designated gatekeepers on the 5th of September 2023 to appeal the Commission’s decisions will come to an end (for a review of the decisions, see here). Up until this moment, reporting has only documented that Apple would be considering challenging the Commission’s decisions and is prone to…
The World’s first hard-law horizontal legislation on artificial intelligence is currently nearing political agreement between the European Union’s (EU) three legislative branches, the European Parliament (EP), the Council of the European Union (the Council) and the European Commission (EC). Inter-institutional negotiations (or with their technical name, trilogues) continue, and there is an incredible amount of…
