Last week, the German Federal Court of Justice published its April 2021 judgment in Trucks II. The German Court – always good for a surprise – was overall less favourable to the claimant. In particular, it emphasised the role of economic party opinions and regression analysis, especially in relation to the factual presumption of price…
Traditionally August isn’t the busiest month for Chinese antitrust enforcement. This year is no exception. But that doesn’t mean that Chinese antitrust regulators weren’t active. On the contrary. It seems many of them used the ‘summer lull’ to work on a specific project: issuing antitrust compliance guidelines. Indeed, last month, three provincial offices of the…
With the recent decision given by the 13th Chamber of the Council of State on 24 May 2021,[1] the administrative fine given to the Turkish Pharmacists Association (“TPA”) by the Turkish Competition Authority (“TCA”) on the grounds that some of its decisions and practices violated Article 4 of Law No. 4054 on the Protection of…
In light of the European Commission’s recent gun-jumping investigation concerning Illumina’s acquisition of GRAIL, what has been the gun-jumping track record of the Serbian competition authority and what to expect in the future? What is the potential fine for gun-jumping in Serbia? The Serbian Competition Act prescribes a standstill obligation, providing that the parties…
Since December 2020 Chinese antitrust enforcement has become visible to a larger audience. Some in the Chinese antitrust community have even identified a “new area.” A number of speeches by the country’s top leadership over the past few months – including a key speech in December 2020 – have indicated high-level support and may have…
Recently, the Commercial Court of Moscow backed a procedural decision of the Federal Antimonopoly Service (FAS). The FAS fined the Russian IT company Mail.Ru Group for failing to provide the supervisory authority with full information about clients’ mailboxes on their servers. These mailboxes belonged to the Federal Penitentiary Service employees, who were suspected of being…
When we earlier reported the German Facebook proceedings in terms of a legal opera [Link], this metaphor was, as I am afraid we have to admit, a little ill-fitting. As things now seem, we can observe a whole oeuvre, a whole cinematic universe, as a good number of spin-offs, sequels and side-stories centred around Facebook…
Recently, the Turkish Competition Authority (“TCA”) has published its reasoned decision in which it conditionally cleared the merger transaction[1], planned through the incorporation of Fiat Chrysler Automobiles N.V. (“FCA”) and Peugeot S.A. (“PSA”) into FCA. In this regard, especially two points have aroused curiosity: (i) what would be the competitive concerns that may arise after…
In February 2021, the Polish Competition Authority (Prezes Urzędu Ochrony Konkurencji i Konsumentów, UOKiK) cleared the media merger between Polska Press sp. z o.o. and PKN Orlen S.A. The Polish Commissioner for Civil Rights Protection had concerns about the impact of the concentration on media plurality. He appealed with the Competition Division of the Regional…
The Montenegrin national competition authority (NCA) has published its track record in pursuing gun-jumping violations in the last three years – and the number of violations detected by the authority is surprisingly high. What do Montenegrin merger control rules say about gun-jumping? Aside from Serbia and Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro is another Western Balkan…
