Introduction Blockchain technology is a complex and innovative field that has raised questions about its potential impact on competition laws. As the use of blockchain increases, its unique characteristics, such as market power, interoperability, network effects, and transparency, become increasingly challenging to regulate. To tackle these challenges, competition authorities across the globe, including the European…
The judgment of the European Court of Justice (CJEU) in Tráficos Manuel Ferrer (C-312/21) provides some clarity on the compatibility of national cost rules and judicial damages estimation with EU primary law – the effective enforcement of EU competition law – and the rules of the Damages Directive. The CJEU followed AG Kokott’s opinion to…
The European Union’s (EU’s) new Foreign Subsidies Regulation (FSR), entered into force on January 12, 2023. The FSR creates a unique new quasi-antitrust regime to combat distortions of competition in the EU internal market caused by subsidies multinationals receive outside the EU. It imposes new mandatory notification and approval requirements for acquisitions of significant EU…
On 6 February 2023, the European Commission (“EC”) published the draft Implementing Regulation and notification forms (together: the “IR”) relating to the EU Foreign Subsidies Regulation (“FSR”). The EC has launched a four-week public consultation period that will allow stakeholders to comment; i.e., there may still be changes to the IR. However, it can in…
It would no longer be surprising to see competition or regulatory authorities blaming digital platforms for favouring their own services on their own platforms. In particular, in Europe, seeing the General Court’s Google decisions (see e.g., Johannes Persch’s blog posts on Shopping and Android) and the self-preferencing obligation of the Digital Markets Act (see, e.g.,…
Introduction If we are to summarise competition law developments of Turkey for 2022 in a few headlines, these would include the amendments to the merger control thresholds, the exceptions introduced for the technology undertakings with a view to catching killer acquisitions, the increased scrutiny over online platforms, the closer relationship between competition law and data,…
Facts and court proceedings Before the start of the liberalization process in 1999 with Legislative Decree 79/1999 (“Decreto Bersani”), the Italian electricity market was run singlehandedly by the Ente Nazionale Energia Elettrica (Enel), born with the nationalization of electricity in 1962. As the former Italian legal monopolist, Enel was integrated into all stages of the…
Introduction 2022 was an eventful year for competition law in India. The Competition Commission of India (CCI) operated optimally approving combinations notified before it in reasonable timelines, conducting significant dawn raids, passing notable orders that made international headlines, and conducting market studies. The anticipated amendments to the Competition Act, 2002 (Act) were discussed ad nauseum…
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,…
