2021 was another busy year for the UK competition regulator, the Competition and Markets Authority (“CMA”), building on the previous year’s focus on merger control, antitrust enforcement, and digital markets. Heading into 2022, the UK’s Competition and Markets Authority (“CMA”) had 36 merger investigations, 14 competition enforcement cases, 13 consumer protection cases, three market studies…
Better late than never. Last year’s recap post on European Union competition law and policy developments already was quite long (see post here). This year’s post might even be longer. Sorry, dear readers, nothing much I can do – 2021 was a very busy year. Article 101 – of principles, evaluation of rules and…
The past year generated substantial interest in the operation of Canada’s principal legislation governing the review of foreign investments, the Investment Canada Act (“ICA”). In particular, attention was focused on the ICA’s national security review process, which authorizes the Canadian government to block investments by non-Canadians that would be “injurious” to Canada’s national security. We…
On 23 February 2022, the EU Commission published its long-awaited Data Act, the last major building block of the Commission’s February 2020 Data Strategy. The Data Act Is an ambitious piece of legislation with implications for consumers and businesses across the economy, not limited to the technology sector. The act aims to facilitate access to…
On 9 February 2022, the General Court handed down its judgment in the offbeat case Sped-Pro (T-791/19). Notably, the General Court ruled that before rejecting a complaint on the grounds that the competition authority of a Member State is “better placed”, the Commission must examine, in a concrete and precise manner, the indications provided by…
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…
