2021 brought many interesting competition law developments around the world. We are happy to report that our second edition of the series on main developments in competition law and policy involved even more country reports. Check them out: Argentina Australia Austria Belgium Canada China Denmark European Union Georgia Germany Greece Italy Korea The Netherlands Poland…
Recent posts on this blog (here) have already highlighted the role that the adoption of Directive 2014/104/EU (Damages Directive or Directive) and the European Commission’s (EC) decision in case AT.39824 – Trucks, amongst other events, have played as turning points in private enforcement of competition law in the EU. The Directive has led not only…
The European Commission’s horizontal guidelines are an invaluable tool for practitioners in antitrust compliance work. The team at Unit A1 in DG COMP have done a great job at further developing the guidelines in the new draft that was published for stakeholder comments on 1 March 2022. Today, the EU & Competition team at Szecskay…
On 22 March 2022, the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) issued judgments in Cases C-117/20 bpost (bpost) and C-151/20 Nordzucker and Others (Nordzucker). The judgments clarify the scope of protection afforded by the principle of ne bis in idem where EU competition law operates to regulate the same or similar conduct as…
In the coming years, data collected by vehicles will be subject to a new EU regulatory regime consisting of horizontal rules applicable across many industries and vertical rules designed specifically for the automotive sector. In February 2022, the EU Commission adopted a proposal for a new Data Act, which is currently working its way through…
On 24 February 2022, Russia invaded the territory of Ukraine and triggered the largest European war since 1945. The war has led to unprecedented loss of human lives and the biggest refugee crisis since World Word II, according to the UNHCR. At this stage, the economic impact of the war is difficult to predict. Some…
The following is a selection of some of the most important developments in German competition law and policy in 2021. It has been a busy year for the Federal Cartel Office (“FCO”), inter alia because the new rules for digital companies took effect. The following covers cases under these new rules, abuse of dominance, merger…
Debates amongst competition scholars and practitioners have been buzzing with references to sustainability recently. Several books and articles were written about the topic in the last two years and several competition agencies have written position papers about it. Most of the debate about the interaction between competition law and sustainability concerns agreements between competitors that…
As International Women’s Month draws to a close, its objectives needn’t be held over until the same time next year but ought instead to remain on the global priority list. This is because meaningful transformation transcends the celebration of an annual event. Inclusivity should be embedded in the fabric of all that we do, including law…
On 1 March 2022, the European Commission (“EC”) published for consultation two draft revised horizontal block exemption regulations (“HBERs”) on research & development (“R&D”) and specialisation agreements, as well as draft revised horizontal cooperation guidelines (“Horizontal Guidelines”). The EC’s stated aim is to make it easier for companies to cooperate in areas such as R&D…
