Abuse of dominance, Digital economy, European Court of Justice, Telecommunications

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

The recent judgment of the Court of Justice of the EU (“the CJEU”) in Slovak Telekom[1] is a judgment with significant implications.  This article, first, summarises the main lessons from Slovak Telecom as regards the indispensability criterion in cases of refusal to supply competitors by dominant companies and, second, speculates on some likely consequences for…

Duty to state reasons, Equal treatment, European Court of Human Rights, European Court of Justice, Fundamental rights, Hybrid Settlement, Presumption of Innocence, Settlement

(University of Vienna, Austria) and (Max Planck Institute Luxembourg)/ /1 Comment

On March 18, 2021, in a hybrid settlement case, the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) partially annulled the judgment of the General Court of the European Union (GC) for violating the obligation to state reasons and the principle of equal treatment in the calculation of the fine. The CJEU compared the situation…

Abuse of dominance, Digital economy, Google, United States of America

(University of Copenhagen)/ /2 Comments

Much noise has been made over the US FTC’s 2013 decision not to pursue charges against Google. A recent release of the full file has fueled this further, feeding into a general frustration over Big Tech and perceived enforcement deficits. However, most of the FTC file has been available since 2015, and but for a…

Competition Commission of India, Data protection, Digital economy, India, Investigations, Privacy, Whatsapp

, , (Nishith Desai Associates)/ /Leave a comment

On 24 March 2021, the Competition Commission of India (‘CCI’) passed an order initiating investigation against WhatsApp Inc. (‘WhatsApp’) and Facebook Inc. (‘FB’) to determine if WhatsApp’s updated privacy policy terms allowing it to share user data with FB and its subsidiaries constituted an abuse of dominance (‘Initiation Order’).[1] The Initiation Order shoves India’s competition…

European Court of Justice, Patent settlements, Pharmaceuticals, Restriction by object

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

On 25 March 2021, the European Court of Justice (“ECJ”) dismissed all the appeals against the European Commission’s decision to fine Lundbeck and several other companies for entering into anti-competitive patent settlement agreements.1 The judgments largely repeat the position taken by the ECJ in its January 2020 Paroxetine judgment (see our alert). They notably confirm…

Geoblocking, Relative Market Power, Switzerland, Unfair prices

(Schellenberg Wittmer )/ /Leave a comment

In 2016, a public initiative was launched in Switzerland, requesting amendments to the Cartel Act in order to enforce non-discriminatory procurement of goods and services abroad by Swiss purchasers. Furthermore, the initiative requested the introduction of rules against geo-blocking in the Unfair Competition Act. This so-called “Fair-Price Initiative” is backed by various consumer, hotel, gastronomy…

Consultation, European Commission, VBER

, (Latham & Watkins LLP)/ /Leave a comment

On 17 March 2021, the European Commission (EC) has published the results of its public consultation on the review of the Motor Vehicle Block Exemption Regulation (MVBER). Key Points The automotive sector is under surveillance as it has been affected by a number of EC-issued cartel decisions in the last few years. Distribution systems and…

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…