China, Gun jumping, Merger control

(University of Macau)/ /Leave a comment

On 12 March 2021, the State Administration for Market Regulation (SAMR), China’s competition authority responsible for the enforcement of the Anti-Monopoly Law (AML), has announced ten decisions imposing maximum fines for the failure to notify economic concentrations under the applicable merger control rules. The sanctions targeted China’s leading tech companies, which have been recently subjected…

World Competition Law and Economics Review

(Bird and Bird, Belgium)/ /Leave a comment

We are happy to inform you that the latest issue of the journal is now available and includes the following contributions:   Marco Botta The Challenge of Sanctioning Unfair Royalty Rate by the SEP Holder: ‘When’, ‘How’ and ‘What’ The holder of a Standard Essential Patent (SEP) is usually required to license its patent to…

Gun jumping, Merger control, Turnover allocation, Ukraine

, (Asters)/ /Leave a comment

On 21 January 2021, the Ukrainian Supreme Court (Supreme Court) annulled one of the highest fines of the Antimonopoly Committee of Ukraine (AMC) for gun-jumping. The judgement upheld the lower courts’ decisions, which in turn quashed the AMC’s 2019 decision to impose approx. EUR 1.9 million on a Ukrainian group subsidiary for the acquisition of…

Competition enforcement, Competition law, Dawn raids, ECN, Investigations, Sweden

, (Mannheimer Swartling)/ /Leave a comment

Major amendments to competition legislation are expected to add more bite to the bark of Sweden’s antitrust watchdog. On 1 March 2021, the Swedish Competition Authority (SCA) gained a number of new powers and introduced some related changes to its routines.  Specific to Sweden but with broader resonance in real terms, this is a good…

Competition Commission of India, Digital markets, India, Interim measures

, (Nishith Desai Associates)/ /1 Comment

On 9 March 2021, the Competition Commission of India (‘CCI’) granted two hotel franchisees (Treebo and Fab Hotels) (‘Complainants’) interim relief against the hotel aggregator, MakeMyTrip India Pvt. Ltd. and the Ibibo Group Private Limited (‘MMT-GO’) (‘Interim Order’).[1] CCI directed MMT-GO to re-list Treebo and Fab Hotels on its website. Two things make the order…

Advantage, European Court of Justice, European Union, State aid, Tax, Taxation

(Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton LLP) and (University of Vienna, Austria)/ /Leave a comment

On March 4, 2021, the Court of Justice (‘CJEU’) delivered a judgment in the State aid case Fútbol Club Barcelona (C-362/19 P), quashing the ruling of the General Court of February 26, 2019 (T-865/16) and upholding the Commission’s Decision of July 3, 2016 (SA.29769). In its judgment, the CJEU provided helpful guidance to assess the…

European Court of Justice, European Union, SGEI, State aid

, (BonelliErede)/ /Leave a comment

In the last decade, the EU scene has been characterised by a more flexible application of State aid rules, partially due to the persistent emergencies across the continent. But this trend has not significantly affected the application of Art. 106(2) TFEU or, more generally, the rules governing the financing of services of general economic interest…

Competition proceedings, Criminal sanctions, Dawn raids, Denmark, ECN, Interim measures, Investigations, Liability

, , (Kromann Reumert)/ /Leave a comment

The ECN+ Directive requires all EU Member States to confer upon their national competition authorities certain enforcement and sanctioning powers. The Danish implementing act, no. L 116 (link only available in Danish), was passed by the Danish Parliament on 9 February 2021. Although the ECN+ Directive was adopted on 11 December 2018, and therefore well-known…

Competition proceedings, European Court of Justice, National competition authorities (NCAs), Ne bis in idem

(University of Göttingen, Germany)/ /Leave a comment

In its judgment of 25 February 2021 in the case of Slovak Telekom, the European Court of Justice (ECJ) reaffirmed its jurisprudence on the ne bis in idem rule and clarifies its relationship and functioning with art. 11 (6) of Regulation 1/2003. Judging from the facts as they are presented in the ECJ’s ruling, the…

Australia, Competition policy, Enforcement

, , (K&L Gates)/ /Leave a comment

Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) Chair, Rod Sims, has announced the ACCC’s 2021 compliance and enforcement policy and priorities. The focus of the ACCC’s 2021 priorities is reflective of its: continuation of its unfinished “to do” list in a COVID-19 interrupted 2020 enduring/ongoing priorities, such as the prosecution of cartel conduct (with two to…