Competition developments in Slovenia followed the international trends. In the M&A frenzy of the pandemic era, the Competition Protection Agency (“CPA”) remained busy with an increased number of merger filings. While COVID cases seemed to have grown in parallel with dealmaking bonanza, the CPA returned to conducting on-site dawn raids. As ever, gun-jumping remained a…
In Denmark, the Competition Council is the principal enforcer of competition law with the Competition and Consumer Authority acting as the day-to-day caretaker, including rendering decisions in (minor) cases. Decisions from either may be appeals to the Competition Tribunal or the judiciary, and after amendments in 2021 which implemented the ECN+ directive, initial appeal to…
As part of the series of posts on the main 2021 developments in key jurisdictions by many authors of the Kluwer Competition Law Blog, we provide you with an overview of the main developments over 2021 in the Netherlands. In sum, we saw an upsurge in the enforcement of the competition rules in the Netherlands…
The past year in Canada saw the Commissioner of Competition, Matthew Boswell (the “Commissioner”), launch a concerted campaign to reform Canadian competition law and policy. The Commissioner’s view is that competition law should play a central role in facilitating the recovery of the Canadian economy following the COVID-19 pandemic, but that the current version of…
In any system, the competition regulator’s ability to investigate, sanction, and remedy competition grievances are directly dependent on the size of resources (financial, personal, and informational) that regulator has at their disposal. Competition regulators have been known to issue policies setting priority areas for competition law enforcement based on sectoral and severity criteria to overcome…
Advocate General Rantos delivered his Opinion in a request of a preliminary ruling by a Spanish court (case C-267/20), the Audiencia Provincial of León, the appellate court in a trucks’ cartel damages claim. In particular, Advocate General Rantos Opinion deals with the temporal scope of application of the Damages Directive; the “substantive” or “procedural” nature…
Europe’s leniency programs face a problem. Creating an incentive for private enforcement with the 2014 Damages Directive came at the expense of leniency applications all over the EU. A further balance of public and private enforcement will be necessary. Many approaches have been discussed. Recently, calls for exemptions or limitations of civil liability for leniency…
The market power of big tech firms like Google, Apple, Facebook, Amazon, and Microsoft (the GAFAM) has long been a thorn in the eyes of the European Commission (EC).[1] Ever since the EU drafted the Digital Markets Act[2] to regulate market power in the digital markets, they faced strong protests.[3] The widely received Epic-Apple court…
As part of its review of the EU antitrust rules governing vertical agreements, the European Commission (EC) has published for consultation a draft new section of its Vertical Guidelines, which contains proposed guidance on information exchange in “dual distribution” relationships. Reacting to feedback from stakeholders, the EC has adjusted the review test it proposed in…
2021 will likely be counted as one of the most monumental years in the history of Korean competition law and policy. Above all, the amendment of Korean competition law, Monopoly Regulation and Fair Trade Act (“Korean competition law”), which significantly overhauled it, was entered into force. In addition, several bills to regulate digital platforms were…
