Almost two and a half years have passed since Spain’s Royal Decree Laws 8/2020, of 17 March, on extraordinary urgent measures to address the economic and social impact of COVID-19, 11/2020, of 31 March, adopting additional urgent social and economic measures to address COVID-19, and 34/2020, of 17 November, on urgent measures to support business…
On August 5, 2022, the Italian Parliament adopted the 2021 Annual Law for Market and Competition (the “2021 Competition Law”), [1] the aim of which is to adapt the Italian system to EU competition rules and policies and to improve and liberalize markets affected by regulatory or economic barriers. The law reflects most of the…
As in most jurisdictions, the Portuguese Competition Act (‘PCAct’) provides for an ex-ante merger control regime, according to which concentrations above certain thresholds are subject to mandatory pre-notification. Three alternative thresholds apply i) a turnover threshold, ii) a standard market share threshold and iii) a de minimis market share threshold (see Article 37 of the PCAct)….
According to Wikipedia, the term “filicide” refers to a deliberate act of a parent killing their own child. As awful as that sounds, in corporate life it is pretty common for undertakings to divest, diminish, or discontinue entire product lines, services, distribution chains, or complementary divisions of work. This is often done as a response…
We are happy to inform you that the latest issue of the journal is now available and includes the following contributions: Pablo Ibáñez Colomo, Competition Law and Sports Governance: Disentangling a Complex Relationship Cases like International Skating Union and Super League show that the application of EU competition law to rules adopted by sports…
The Lugano Convention 2007 is an international treaty negotiated by the EU on behalf of its Member States with Iceland, Norway and Switzerland. It seeks to clarify (inter alia) which courts have jurisdiction in cross-border civil and commercial disputes. The UK ceased to be a Member of the Convention upon Brexit and its attempt to…
On 20 September 2022, Advocate General Rantos delivers his Opinion on the much-awaited Case C-252/21 (Meta Platforms v. Bundeskartellamt). Bearing in mind the Opinion intends to pave the way for the European Court of Justice (ECJ) regarding the interpretation of the GDPR, the text resonates with competition law and its interpretation in the display online…
On 16 September 2022 came into force the amendments to the Portuguese Competition Act introduced by Law no. 17/2022, of 17 August which also modifies the bylaws of the Competition Authority (PCA). This is the third amendment to the 2012 Competition Act, and the first amendment to the PCA bylaws. Law no. 17/2022 transposes the…
The long-awaited Google Android decision is out (see the press release here or the full text here). The General Court has dismissed Google’s action almost in its entirety, slightly reducing the record fine from 4.343 billion euros to (still a record) 4.125 billion euros. This post gives a very first overview of the judgment and…
On 18 May and 22 June 2022, the EU General Court upheld two European Commission prohibition decisions. Both judgments endorsed the European Commission’s assessment of the mergers at issue, recognising a broad margin of discretion in the European Commission’s evaluation of the concentrations’ effects and the remedies. Key takeaways The EU General Court (“GC”)…
