In October 2019, Ukrainian news feeds ‘exploded’ as the Antimonopoly Committee of Ukraine (‘AMC‘, ‘Committee‘) imposed a record-breaking fine of a total of about €240 million for a long-lasting cigarette cartel (‘AMC Decision‘) (‘Tobacco Case‘). The respondents in the Tobacco Case are four large cigarette manufacturers – British American Tobacco, Philip Morris, Japan Tobacco, Imperial…
On 24th January 2021, the Competition Commission of India (‘CCI’) joined an exclusive club of competition law regulators around the world to initiate action in the area of privacy and competition law. The CCI passed a suo moto order directing an investigation into Whatsapp for alleged abuse of dominance as per the Competition Act, 2002…
The European Commission’s 254-page decision approving Google’s acquisition of Fitbit (the “Decision”) offered the Commission a so-far unique opportunity to apply the 2019 report on “Competition policy for the digital era’s” (the “Digital Era Report’s”) recommendation to assess acquisitions by “gatekeeper platforms” of much smaller companies active in complementary markets using an “ecosystem” approach. Google/Fitbit…
The draft Digital Markets Act (DMA) has been public for several months now (see a previous blog for our initial review when the draft came out) and opinions on its content continue to roll in. In brief, the DMA aims to lay down a set of rules for certain crucial platform services, so-called gatekeepers. EU…
On 9 June 2021, the European Commission (EC) published a Preliminary Report setting out the initial findings of its sector inquiry into the consumer Internet of Things (“IoT”). The consumer IoT sector encompasses services, devices and technologies that support the interaction of consumers with connected devices, which collect and exchange data over the internet. The…
Recent developments in digitalization have triggered the Turkish Competition Authority (“TCA”) to scrutinize more closely e-marketplace business models. The TCA has carried out a sector inquiry on e-marketplaces for this purpose and a preliminary report (“Report”) has been published on the official website of the TCA on May 7, 2021, in which a wide range…
On May 27, 2021, the Commercial Court of Moscow City backed the Federal Antimonopoly Services of Russia (FAS) in a case against HeadHunter, a platform that provides a job search service in Russia. HeadHunter had blocked clients from using the program Robot Vera from its competitor Stafori to automate recruitment services. Instead, HeadHunter offered its…
The 50+1 rule is a distinctive feature of German professional football. While majority shareholdings of investors are not uncommon in other professional football leagues, this rule makes them almost impossible in Germany. However, the Bundeskartellamt (Federal Cartel Office: FCO) may now have put a stop to this long-standing practice. So, might we even witness investor-led…
Despite the best efforts of the European legislator, in some European Member States private enforcement of competition law, that is, private litigation for compensation of cartel overcharges is meagre at best. One of the numerous reasons why private enforcement of competition law mostly fails is the lack of meaningful provisions for determining the damage suffered,…
We are happy to announce the new International Law Talk Podcast episode on EU competition law developments in the pharmaceutical sector. And this one is twice as good! Not only are we discussing both competition and IP issues, but I also interviewed two leading experts in the field: Michael Clancy and David Hull from Van…
