Anticompetitive agreements, Cartels, Competition enforcement, Damages, Economics, Estimation, Evidence, National court, Private enforcement, Spain

(IE Law School)/ /Leave a comment

Introduction Three weeks ago, the Spanish Supreme Court delivered its first rulings on damages claims in the trucks cartel. Given that Spanish courts have been the most active in the EU on this case (see the stream of judgments issued by the Courts of Appeal in Figure 1, 85% are available at CENDOJ), there was…

Abuse of dominance, Advertising, Advocate General, Digital, Digital competition, Digital economy, Digital Markets Act, Enforcement, European Court of Justice, Facebook, Germany, References for a preliminary ruling

(University Villanueva, Spain)/ /2 Comments

On 4 July 2023, the Court of Justice resolved the conundrum around the potential interaction between data protection regulation and competition law following the legal opera that started in 2019 with the German competition authority’s case against Facebook/Meta’s processing activities (for a summary of the case, see here). The ruling hops onto Advocate General Rantos’…

Abuse of dominance, Damages, Digital markets, Google, Jurisdiction, Netherlands, Private enforcement

, , (Stek)/ /Leave a comment

In a recent judgment of 31 May 2023, the Amsterdam District Court (the District Court) accepted jurisdiction to adjudicate a damages case against Google Netherlands B.V. (located in Amsterdam) as well as against Google LLC and Alphabet Inc., two US-based entities that were fined by the European Commission in the Google Shopping case for abuse…

Anticompetitive agreements, European Commission, Exemptions, Horizontal, Sustainability

, , (White & Case) and (White & Case, Belgium)/ /Leave a comment

The European Commission (“EC”) has published its final revised Horizontal Cooperation Guidelines and adopted new R&D and Specialisation Block Exemption Regulations (HBERs). The EC’s aim is to provide more guidance for competitors wishing to cooperate in areas such as R&D and production, but also in sustainability initiatives.   What are the EU rules on horizontal…

Abuse of dominance, Chile, Digital competition, Digital markets, Investigations, Latin America, Market definition

(Universidad Diego Portales)/ /Leave a comment

Introduction Latin America as well as Chile, have developed a nascent practice in digital markets in the last years. According to a recent survey, between 2015 and 2023 Latin American competition authorities have led 99 investigations, including enforcement activity (both regarding cartel and unilateral conduct) and advocacy. In the case of Chile, the competition authority…

World Competition Law and Economics Review

(Bird and Bird, Belgium)/ /Leave a comment

We are happy to inform you that the latest issue of the journal is now available and includes the following contributions: Beatriz Kira, Is iFood Starving the Market? Antitrust Enforcement in the Market for Online Food Delivery in Brazil This article examines the decisions taken by the Brazilian Competition Authority, the Administrative Council for Economic…

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…