We are delighted to see so many of our dear contributors’ blog posts shortlisted in different categories of the 2021 Antitrust Writing Awards. Congratulations on this great achievement! Now it is on you, loyal readers of the blog, to vote for these brilliant pieces: Business Articles – Concerted Practices Oleksander Dyakulych and Anastasiia Panchak…
On 24 December 2021, the Dutch Authority for Consumers & Markets (ACM) published a summary decision finding an abuse of a dominant position by Apple. The decision dates back to 24 August 2021 but was published only last month following an injunction proceeding aimed at suspending the effects of the ACM’s decision as well as…
This post aims to present the main competition law developments in four Western Balkan jurisdictions – Serbia, Montenegro, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and North Macedonia. Rather than being an exhaustive review of everything that happened in 2021, the post will focus on what really mattered in these jurisdictions during the previous year. A) The four…
2021 was another busy year regarding competition law developments in Greece, with several interesting initiatives by the Greek Competition Commission (“HCC”). Maintaining momentum during the COVID-19 pandemic As reported last year, the primary goal of the new leadership of the HCC for 2020 was to clear a stockpile of pending cases, many of which…
2021 – the year of first decisions – the law, the practice, and the facts The law The possibility to impose financial fines on individuals in case of undertaking anti-competitive agreements by companies was introduced into the Polish competition law in 2015. It is a responsibility of a subsidiary nature – firstly, an undertaking must…
Legislation overview The Constitution of Georgia (Article 6.2) lays down the framework for free and undistorted competition in the Georgian market. The Competition Chapter of the Association Agreement between the European Union (“EU”) and Georgia emphasizes the importance of “free and undistorted competition in the trade relations“. It also concretizes the obligation of the Parties…
In the traditional spirit of resolving to do better in the new year, there is some low-hanging fruit for the EU Member States who have not finalized their national implementation of the EU Whistleblowing Directive: Cover national competition law as one of the protected areas. The Directive itself (Directive (EU) 2019/1937 of the European Parliament…
Regulation 2019/452 (as amended, the FDI Regulation) inserted the European Commission (the Commission) into a hitherto jealously guarded area of EU Member State authority – screening of foreign direct investment (FDI) for threats to security and public order. The FDI Regulation set out minimum requirements for Member States’ FDI screening mechanisms and a mechanism for…
The Indian antitrust landscape has recently shifted its focus to the regulation of digital markets. To achieve this end, substantial changes to the country’s merger control mechanisms were proposed in the Competition (Amendment) Bill, 2020 (the Amendment/the Bill). One of the central purposes of these amendments is to prospectively analyse mergers and acquisitions that may…
2021: Less case law, more legislation While the year 2021 was a rather unspectacular year regarding relevant new case law, the legislative made sure it provided for quite noteworthy developments in competition law nonetheless. The Swiss Competition Commission (“ComCo“) and especially the courts produced relatively few leading decisions in 2021, with still a lot of…
