Cartels, Labour market, No-poach-agreement, Wage fixing

(E+H Attorneys-at-Law)/ /Leave a comment

A new era of cartel enforcement Competition authorities worldwide have historically focused on investigating classic cartel practices, such as price fixing, market sharing, and exchanging commercially sensitive information. These practices are primarily investigated in traditional markets, such as pharmaceuticals, technology, and retail. However, in recent years, an increasing number of antitrust agencies have been focusing…

Competition Law 2022, Competition policy, Competition proceedings, Spain

, (Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton LLP)/ /1 Comment

Below we cover the main competition law developments in Spain in 2022, concerning (i) institutions, (ii) restrictive agreements, (ii) abuse of dominance, (iii) procedure, (iv) mergers, and (v) the internal market. The selection, as usual with these lists, is inherently subjective. The authors note that they have favoured a broader selection of issues to include…

Digital competition, Digital economy, Digital markets, Merger control, Merger Thresholds, Norway

, , (Advokatfirmaet Thommessen)/ /Leave a comment

In its judgement on 17 February 2023, Norway’s Supreme Court quashed the Norwegian Competition Authority’s prohibition of the 2019 acquisition of tech start-up Nettbil by media conglomerate Schibsted. This is the very first merger case heard by the Norwegian courts and represents an important development in Norwegian merger control.   Prohibition of a Below-Threshold Transaction…

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

(University Carlos III of Madrid, Spain)/ /Leave a comment

The DMA will start to apply in March 2024. The European Commission (EC) has acquired the compromise to make the process of the DMA’s future implementation, monitoring and oversight of compliance as transparent as possible. After the first stakeholders’ workshop on the ban on self-preferencing, on the 27th of February, the Commission held its second workshop…

Abuse of dominance, Advertising, Google, Killer acquisitions, Tying and Bundling, United States of America

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

* This entry is a re-post of the contributor’s CCM Blog post, find link here.   On 24 January 2023 the U.S. Department of Justice (‘DoJ’), joined by multiple U.S. States including California and New York, filed an antitrust lawsuit against Google alleging that the “industry behemoth […] has corrupted legitimate competition in the ad…

Canada, Competition Law 2022, Competition policy, Competition proceedings

, , (Davies Ward Phillips & Vineberg LLP, Canada)/ /Leave a comment

Significant amendments to Canada’s Competition Act (Act) dominated discussion about Canadian competition law policy and enforcement in 2022. Given the full implementation of the first round of amendments and the formal commencement of public consultation on further amendments, potential legislative reforms are certain to remain at the forefront of Canadian competition law discourse in 2023….

Abuse of dominance, Apple, Digital competition, Digital economy, Digital markets, Google, Japan, Market study, Self-preferencing

(Hirayama Law Offices)/ /Leave a comment

Summary The Japan Fair Trade Commission (JFTC) published a 157-page report on 9th February 2023 (see here the press release), focusing on issues in the market structure and the lack of competitive pressure in the markets of essential software for smartphones (mobile OS) and app distribution services, both of which Apple and Google mainly provide….

Competition Law 2022, Competition policy, Competition proceedings, Georgia

(National Bank of Georgia) and (Clifford Chance LLP, Belgium)/ /Leave a comment

The Competition Chapter of the EU-Georgia Association Agreement emphasizes the importance of “free and undistorted competition in the trade relations”. It also sets the obligation of the Parties to maintain “comprehensive competition laws” and have “appropriately equipped, effective authority”.  In line with these obligations, an independent competition authority (Georgian National Competition Agency – “GNCA”) was…

Anticompetitive agreements, Burden of Proof, Cartels, Damages, Germany, Liability, Litigation

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

On 5 January 2023, the German Federal Court of Justice (Bundesgerichtshof, BGH) published an important judgment in relation to follow-on damage actions relating to the so-called German drugstore products cartel (Case KZR 42/20). In its ruling, Germany’s highest civil court also confirmed a factual presumption of harm in the case of anticompetitive information exchanges. This…

Competition Law 2022, Competition policy, Competition proceedings, Guidelines, Market study, Netherlands, Sustainability

, (Bird & Bird)/ /Leave a comment

The Dutch Authority for Consumers & Markets (Autoriteit Consument & Markt, ‘ACM’) seems to have tuned down its antitrust enforcement activities in 2022; it did not impose a single fine for violation of the cartel prohibition or abuse of dominance but it upheld one fine in administrative appeal, i.e. the Samsung case. And of course,…