The following is a selection of some important developments in German competition law and policy in 2022. It covers cases under the new rules for digital companies, abuse of dominance, merger control, antitrust (cartels, horizontal cooperation and vertical cases) and damages litigation. Special rules for the digital companies – Section 19a ARC The Federal…
The German Federal Ministry for Economics and Climate Action published the draft for the 11th amendment of the Competition Act (GWB) on the 6th of April, following the same path towards the DMA’s effective implementation under the powers conferred upon NCAs pursuant to Article 38(7). Up until now, The Netherlands has also issued the draft…
Competition law and policy developments in the UK have continued apace throughout 2022, ushering in several important changes to competition rules; further law reform proposals; a substantial caseload for UK’s competition and sector authorities, as well as under the national security and investment screening regime, building on last year’s developments; and a new UK subsidy…
Introduction State aid rules have existed since the Rome Treaty and have a negative integration logic: Member States should refrain from distorting competition by helping their own undertakings (an in-depth analysis on state aid, in Hancher, Ottervanger and Slot, see here). These rules naturally trigger tension between what Member States can do with their money…
On 23 March 2023, the European Commission issued its Decision to set up the High-Level Group for the Digital Markets Act (the ‘Decision’). In a previous blog post, the discussion of the DMA and the NCAs intervention in its monitoring and compliance was addressed (see here). Even though the first draft of the DMA issued…
2022 saw several important competition law developments in Greece, both in the legislative sphere and at the level of the national regulator. The Greek Competition Commission (“HCC”) remained very busy, continuing its work from the previous years and launching various interesting new initiatives. Modernisation of Greek competition law: Amended Greek Competition Act In January…
On February 7, the Competition Appeals Tribunal (CAT) delivered its first judgment on the merits of the claims for damages concerning the cartel of truck manufacturers ([2023] CAT 6). The judgment resolves the first two processes against DAF Trucks NV that had been initiated by Royal Mail and British Telecom (1284/5/7/18 (T) and 1290/5/7/18 (T))…
The long-awaited European Court of Justice’s judgment in Towercast confirmed that national competition authorities (and national courts) can apply abuse of dominance rules to mergers that did not trigger EU and national merger control thresholds and were not referred to the European Commission under Article 22 of the EU Merger Regulation. However, uncertainties still remain….
Introduction On 24 March 2023, China’s antitrust authority – the State Administration for Market Regulation (“SAMR”) – issued four regulations implementing the recently amended Anti-Monopoly Law (“AML”): Regulation Prohibiting Monopoly Agreements (“Agreements Regulation”); Regulation Prohibiting Conduct Abusing a Dominant Market Position (“Abuse of Dominance Regulation”); Regulation on the Review of Concentrations between Business Operators (“Merger…
For unknown reasons, DG COMP persists in hiding the jewels when it comes to discrimination cases. This covers BdKEP/Deutsche Post AG from 2004, where DG COMP established (recital 93) how Article 102 TFEU covers three forms of discrimination, two exclusionary and one exploitive. As explained later, these have been referred to as horizontal-, vertical-, and…
