On 10 January 2023, the European Commission (Commission) published Draft guidelines on the application of a new EU antitrust exemption for sustainability agreements involving producers of agricultural products (the Draft Guidelines). Article 210a of Regulation (EU) 1308/2013 (CMO Regulation), which entered into effect in early 2022, exempts restrictions of competition in agreements that are indispensable…
In Denmark, the Danish Competition Council is the principal enforcer of competition law with the Danish Competition and Consumer Authority acting as the day-to-day caretaker, including rendering decisions in (minor) cases. Decisions from either the Competition and Consumer Authority and the Competition Council may be appealed to the Danish Competition Appeals Board or the judiciary,…
Lawmakers and Amazon.com are involved in a constant cat-and-mouse game. Amazon.com is the big winner when consumers and businesses extensively use its digital ecosystem. As a reaction, lawmakers regulate big tech companies to protect end users and business users. This blog post argues that these regulations are not always effective and that their application is…
With 2022 now in hindsight, it is time to take stock of what happened in the Swedish competition law arena during the first post-pandemic year. To sum up, after a relatively long period with little or no action in the competition field, the Swedish Competition Authority (the SCA) is once again picking up speed and…
On 16 January 2023, the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (the “COMESA” or the “Common Market”) Competition Appeals Board (the “Appeals Board”) published its seminal decision upholding the commitments provided by the Confédération Africaine de Football (the “CAF”) in relation to contracts for the commercialization of CAF’s media and marketing rights (the “Intermediation…
Year at a glance 2022 brought a major legislative overhaul, with the Slovenian parliament adopting a new Competition Act (“Competition Act”; sl. Zakon o preprečevanju omejevanja konkurence 2). While turnover thresholds remained unchanged, the Competition Act introduced the much-awaited simplified notification procedure (akin to Short Form CO). Despite the inflationary environment and raising interest rates,…
The preliminary ruling of 12 January 2023 in RegioJet can easily be perceived as a continuation of the jurisprudence on disclosure rules that was developed by the European Court of Justice (the Court or ECJ) in the case of C-163/21 – PACCAR. The PACCAR case concerned specific questions of disclosure of documents, which were not…
Over the last five years, mass litigation in the field of antitrust in Spain has rapidly increased. The so-called “Trucks Cartel Litigation” has generated thousands of judgements and dozens of referrals to the CJEU. These judgements and referrals have allowed national courts and the CJEU to clarify several legal questions, such as the temporal application…
Jurisdiction after DB Station At the end of last year, the ECJ rendered a much-anticipated ruling in the DB Station case (C-721/10), which fundamentally clarified the hierarchy between regulators and civil courts in abuse of dominance cases relating to regulated infrastructure sectors. After lengthy national proceedings, the ECJ decided that national civil courts can only…
In recent years, competition authorities around the world have been scrutinising new types of behaviour that might be deemed abusive within the context of antitrust laws. Although those relating to digital markets receive the most attention, not a day passes by without a surprising decision announced by the authorities or competent courts. The decision of…
