Abuse of dominance, Antitrust, Cartels, Competition, Competition enforcement, Competition Law 2020, Competition policy, Concentrations, COVID-19, Damages, Digital competition, Germany, Merger control

(Heinz & Zagrosek Partner mbB, Germany)/ /Leave a comment

Despite the pandemic, 2020 has been a very busy year for the Federal Cartel Office (“FCO”) and courts in the field of competition law in Germany.  The following is merely a selection of interesting developments.  It does not include the recently adopted reform of the Competition Act, which merits its own blog. Generally, the FCO…

Competition Law 2020, Spain

, , (Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton LLP)/ /Leave a comment

The Spanish competition law landscape has been busy in 2020. Below we review the main developments and takeaways from the last year in the following areas: (i) institutions and legislation; (ii) merger control; (iii) restrictive agreements and abuse of dominance; (iv) State aid; and (v) COVID-19.   Institutions and Legislation Cani Fernández: New President of…

Algorithms, Digital economy, Digital markets, Digital Markets Act, Digital Services Act, Intellectual property (IP), International Law Talk, Online platforms, Platforms, Podcast

(University of Vienna, Austria)/ /Leave a comment

The Kluwer Competition Law Blog is very happy to announce the first competition law issue of the International Law Talk Podcast. Just before Christmas, I talked to Gabriella Muscolo, Commissioner of the Italian Competition Authority, a specialist for big data, IP and competition law. We covered the whole bandwidth of big data and competition law,…

Competition law, Consultation, European Commission, European Union, Labour market, Platforms, Taxation

(White & Case, Belgium) and (Latham & Watkins LLP)/ /Leave a comment

On 6 January 2020, the European Commission (EC) published an inception impact assessment that invites comments on the scope of application of EU competition law to collective bargaining agreements for the self-employed. The EC will launch in the first half of 2021 a more detailed public consultation, with a view to the possible adoption of…

Damages, Germany, Private enforcement

(Spieker & Jaeger)/ /1 Comment

Despite best efforts of the European legislator as well as the CJEU, from a claimant’s perspective, private enforcement litigation before German Courts in the trucks cartel [Link]  must be an aggravating experience. Although the European Commission fined the members of the cartel extensively, an ‘all-out’-approach of the cartelists and apparently flustered lower courts result in…

Consultation, European Commission, European Union, VBER, Vertical agreements, Vertical restraints

(Norton Rose Fulbright, Belgium)/ /Leave a comment

The European Commission (the Commission) closed out its ambitious 2020 antitrust reform agenda with the long-awaited consultation (the Consultation) on reform of the Vertical Block Exemption Regulation (the VBER) and related Guidelines (the VGL), published on December 18, 2020.  The Consultation’s proposals, which closely follow the Commission’s October 2020 Inception Impact Assessment (the Inception Impact…

Competition Commission of India, Digital economy, Digital markets, Facebook, India, Tying and Bundling, Whatsapp

(Chambers of Adv Shresth Gautam) and (LexStart)/ /Leave a comment

The antitrust watchdog of India recently in Harshita Chawla v Whatsapp and Facebook[1] held that Whatsapp’s proposed model of integrating its payments app called ‘Whatsapp Pay’ (‘WPay’) within its messaging app is not anti-competitive since it does not constitute ‘tying in’ due to lack of coercion. In reaching such a conclusion the Competition Commission of…

Competition Law 2020, Greece

(WilmerHale)/ /Leave a comment

2020 was a particularly busy year as regards competition law developments in Greece, despite the COVID-19 crisis.   Pushing ahead The primary goal of the new leadership of the Greek Competition Commission (“HCC”) in late 2019/early 2020 was to clear a stockpile of pending cases, many of which had been initiated prior to 2011. This…

Competition Law 2020, Digital markets, Netherlands, Sustainability

(Bird & Bird, The Netherlands) and (Bird & Bird)/ /Leave a comment

Main developments competition law and policy 2020: The Netherlands As part of the series of posts on the main 2020 developments in key jurisdictions by many authors of the Kluwer Competition Law Blog, we provide you with an overview of developments in the Netherlands. In sum, we saw an upsurge in the enforcement of the…

Canada, Competition Law 2020

, , (Davies Ward Phillips & Vineberg LLP, Canada)/ /Leave a comment

In this article, we highlight the five most important developments and trends in Canadian competition law in 2020 and discuss what to watch for in 2021.   1. Impact of COVID-19 As in other jurisdictions, the enforcement of competition law in Canada last year was affected by the widespread social, health, and economic effects of…