Australia, ESG, Sustainability

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In Brief The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) and Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) continue to be vigilant and seek significant penalties for alleged “greenwashing” (misleading environmental or sustainability claims). The ACCC has been vocal that greenwashing is an enforcement priority for some time and, in December 2023, issued guidance for businesses in…

Abuse of dominance, Digital competition, Digital economy, Digital markets, Essential Facility, Google, Self-preferencing

(Universität Würzburg)/ /1 Comment

Introduction The decision of the ECJ of 10th of September 2024 (C-48/22 P) brings the Google Shopping saga to an end. The decision by the highest court confirms the conviction of Alphabet by the General Court (T-612/17) (see the blogpost on General Court’s decision here). The European Commission had previously imposed a record fine of…

Australia, Legislation, Merger Thresholds, Mergers

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In Brief On 10 October 2024, the Australian Government introduced a bill into Parliament for Australia to enact a mandatory and suspensory competition merger clearance regime. The regime will commence on 1 January 2026, although parties can voluntarily seek clearance under the new regime from 1 July 2025. The thresholds for mandatory merger clearance[1] are…

Data protection, Digital markets, Digital Markets Act, Enforcement, European Commission

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As the DMA’s enforcement is in full swing, the complexities of its specific provisions and questions regarding their interpretation are beginning to surface. On 25 March 2024, the European Commission launched formal proceedings to investigate Meta’s ‘pay-or-consent’ model, introduced in November 2023 for Facebook and Instagram, sparking a significant discussion on the interpretation of Article…

App stores, Apple, Digital competition, Digital economy, Digital Markets Act, Interoperability

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To commemorate the Digital Markets Act’s initial designation decisions, in September the European Commission issued its first two decisions opening specification proceedings on Apple’s technical implementation of Article 6(7) DMA (see case DMA.100203 and case DMA.100204). These are the first specification proceedings triggered by the European Commission as stemming from its capacity to do so…

Art. 22, Competition policy, Killer acquisitions, National competition authorities (NCAs)

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Introduction Following the CJEU Illumina/Grail ruling the case here is made for the Commission to negotiate with the national competition authorities (NCAs) to adopt a common approach to dealing with so-called ‘killer acquisitions’ both substantively and procedurally. The concept here would be for the Commission and the NCAs to negotiate a common network notice which…

Competition policy, European Commission, European Union, Guidelines, Killer acquisitions, Merger control

(Norton Rose Fulbright, Belgium) and , (Analysis Group)/ /1 Comment

Executive Vice President Vestager’s momentous tenure as Commissioner responsible for EU competition policy is nearing its end. EVP Vestager will leave her successor with a full agenda, including the first full-scale revamp of the Commission’s basic antitrust procedural rules in over 20 years, finalizing the controversial guidelines on exclusionary abuses under Article 102 TFEU and…

Commitments, Merger control, Türkiye

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Introduction There have been some exciting developments in Turkish competition law recently, not least of which was the Turkish Competition Board’s (“Board”) first-ever judgment on non-compliance with commitments. To recap, the Board approved the merger between Luxottica Group S.p.A. and Essilor International S.A. back in 2018, subject to behavioural and structural commitments. To review the…

Administrative Discretion, Digital markets, Legislation, United Kingdom

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Background On 24 May 2024, royal assent was granted to the UK Parliament’s Digital Markets Competition and Consumers Act (“DMCC”) (available here), a year after the Bill was first introduced to Parliament. The DMCC brings the most significant reforms to UK competition and consumer law in two decades, enhancing the existing powers of the Competition…

Cartels, Damages, Estimation, Litigation, Presumptions, Private enforcement, Spain

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Introduction The Civil Chamber of the Spanish Supreme Court has already issued forty judgments ruling on appeals against judgments of the Courts of Appeal on claims for damages caused by the truck cartel. The Courts of Appeal have now handed down 4315 rulings on compensation for more than 25,000 cartelized trucks, 95% of them (partially)…