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…
The year of 2021 was very dynamic for China’s competition law. It was marked by the adoption of the new competition legislation, accelerating antitrust enforcement in the digital economy, breaking new records in terms of fines and merger prohibitions, re-organization of the competition authority, and promotion of stronger antitrust compliance programs. Anti-monopoly legislation and…
In early December 2021, Advocate General Rantos delivered his Opinion in a request for a preliminary ruling referred by an Italian court (Case C-377/20). Although AG Rantos’ Opinion is not yet available in English, this will be a case to watch. Indeed, AG Rantos’ Opinion has already generated interest not only because the underlying conduct…
Dissonant antimonopoly tendencies in 2021 In 2021, the tendencies in the antitrust area have emerged remarkably in Russia. On the one hand, there were highly awaited developments such as the Plenum of the Supreme Court. It is difficult to assess the importance of this document since it was extremely necessary for the regulation of antimonopoly…
