Abuse of dominance, Digital competition, Digital economy, Digital Markets Act, European Commission, Google, Proportionality, Remedies, Self-preferencing, Statement of Objections

(Leiden University & KU Leuven)/ /Leave a comment

Google’s behaviour in the advertising technology sector (Ad Tech) is under attack or, at the very least, it is being intensely scrutinised on both sides of the Atlantic. Google is already subject to several antitrust suits in the U.S. lodged against it by the Department of Justice (DoJ) and individual States. In the European Union,…

Class action, Collective Redress, Digital competition, Digital Markets Act, Private enforcement

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

Introduction With the provisions of the Digital Markets Act (‘DMA’, ‘Regulation’) going into effect as of 2 May 2023, the European Union has introduced its ex-ante instrument to regulate the digital markets. This innovative body of rules targets large digital platforms which provide ‘core platform services’ and qualify as ‘gatekeepers’ (Article 2(1). Such online platforms…

Anticompetitive agreements, China, Resale price maintenance

(Hogan Lovells, China)/ /Leave a comment

On 29 May 2023, China’s antitrust authority – the State Administration for Market Regulation (“SAMR”) – published the decision against Zizhu Pharma on its webpage.  The company was fined by SAMR’s Beijing branch for engaging in resale price maintenance (“RPM”), the antitrust lingo for describing a supplier forcing its distributors to follow minimum resale prices. The Zizhu Pharma decision…

Anticompetitive agreements, European Commission, Guidance, Guidelines, Horizontal, Sustainability

(Baker McKenzie)/ /Leave a comment

The Commission has followed a Long and Winding carbon-free Road since only a few years ago when it seemed to favour the Status Quo and promoted a robust competitive process as the best way to guarantee sustainable outcomes for consumers. The final chapter on Sustainability Agreements in the EU Horizontal Guidelines clearly shows a Commission…

Czech Republic, Enforcement, Enlargement, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Memorandum of Understanding, Moldova, Poland, Romania, Rule of Law, Slovakia, Ukraine

(University of Amsterdam) and (State University of Trade and Economics and Max Planck Institute for Innovation and Competition)/ /Leave a comment

In April 2023, a Memorandum was signed between the competition authorities of eight Member States (Poland, Czechia, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Romania and Slovakia) and the competition authorities of the newest EU candidate countries Moldova and Ukraine for regional cooperation in the field of competition policy. The main objective of this initiative was to promote…

Digital, Digital economy, Merger control, Merger regulation, Merger Thresholds, United Kingdom

(Arthur Cox)/ /Leave a comment

This article discusses how the CMA has reached a ‘tipping point’ in ‘Big Tech’ merger enforcement, what the Competition Appeals Tribunal could do in Microsoft v Competition and Markets Authority to recentre and refocus the CMA’s work, and why this all matters to digital markets, and beyond.                …

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

(University Villanueva, Spain)/ /Leave a comment

On 6 June 2023, the European Commission launched for public consultation its Template for Reporting pursuant to Article 11 of the DMA (the Template). The Template builds upon the substance of Article 11 of the DMA, which mandates designated gatekeepers (yet to come in early September): i) to provide the Commission with a report describing…

Anticompetitive agreements, European Commission, Guidelines, Horizontal, Sustainability

(Wolf Theiss)/ /1 Comment

On 1 June 2023, the European Commission (‘Commission’) adopted the new Horizontal Guidelines (together with the new Horizontal Block Exemption Regulations), which contain a new dedicated chapter for the assessment of sustainability agreements. The new Horizontal Guidelines will enter into force following their publication in the Official Journal of the EU (while the new Horizontal…

Competition law, Competition policy, Switzerland

, (Lenz & Staehelin)/ /Leave a comment

The Swiss government aims at a partial revision of the Swiss Cartel Act. Now that the consultation process is completed, the Federal Council has unveiled its draft legislation. The revision aims at modernizing merger control and strengthening private damage litigation. The draft legislation remarkably also provides for a re-introduction of the effects test for hardcore…

Artificial Intelligence, Ex ante regulation, Legislation

(DLA Piper)/ /Leave a comment

The EU Artificial Intelligence Act (EU AI Act) is a landmark EU-originated legislative proposal to regulate artificial intelligence based on its potential to cause harm. Therefore, it can also be labelled as a risk-based regulation, meaning that the regulative burden and duties increase with the specific AI systems’ potential to cause harm. For close watchers…