In May 2024, the Danish Parliament adopted a major overhaul of the Danish Competition Act, including introducing higher fines, a new competition tool, and a merger call-in option, effective from 1 July 2024. In particular, the call-in option will have drastic consequences, and in the future all mergers involving Danish activities could potentially become notifiable….
May 2nd, 2024 was the last day to submit comments to the Public Consultation (Economic and Competitive Aspects of Digital Platforms) held by the Brazilian Ministry of Finance. The Consultation, which was released on January 19, 2024 and had one deadline extension, was designed and organized by the Secretary for Economics Reforms – one of…
Continuing with the trend from previous years, important competition law and policy developments emerged in the UK during 2023. Amongst other things, highly anticipated proposals for major legislative reform were finally introduced in the UK Parliament, the UK’s competition and sector authorities continued to handle a substantial enforcement caseload, whilst the UK government continued to…
Introduction In April 2024, the President of the Office of Competition and Consumers Protection (the “PCA”) introduced new guidelines for setting fines in antitrust cases (the “Guidelines”). The Guidelines are the only document of this type issued by the PCA. Other fields of actions of the PCA, e.g. violations of consumer law, do not have…
The Brazilian Competition Authority – CADE – has just recently published its Guidelines for Non-Horizontal Merger Reviews, which consolidate and formalize the competition authority’s best practices in reviewing vertical and conglomerate mergers (the “V+ Guidelines”). The V+ Guidelines complement CADE’s 2016 Horizontal Mergers Guidelines and other relevant documents that have been published by the Brazilian…
Many of the most challenging transactions reviewed under the EU Merger Regulation (EUMR) in recent years involved their likely effects on non-price competitive factors: innovation; quality and product differentiation; data protection and privacy; sustainability; and capacity and reliability of supply. These topics are discussed briefly, or not at all, in the Commission’s guidelines on the…
Europe has been a frontrunner in the regulation of artificial intelligence on a global scale. The adoption of the Artificial Intelligence Act (AI Act) defines one – despite important – step of the puzzle of European policy on AI. After the adoption of the Council last week, such an ambitious approach is still surrounded by…
As it marked the 30-year anniversary of the Single Market, the European Council asked former Italian Prime Minister, Enrico Letta, to set out his vision for the future of the Single Market including specific proposals for its development. Letta published his report last month which, he writes, is based on 400 stakeholders’ meetings in 65…
Introduction In 2023, the ACM has again shown its commitment to enforcing competition law with the aim of protecting the interests of consumers. The imposition of hefty fine of nearly 8 million EUR on LG for vertical price-fixing conduct, similar to the Samsung case in 2022, sends a strong message to other companies engaging in…
According to the German philosopher Johann Gottfried Herder, the two greatest tyrants on Earth are chance and time. The word ‘tyrant’ is derived from Ancient Greek ‘tyrannos’ to describe an ‘absolute ruler unrestrained by law or constitution’. Certainly, actions for damages in competition law may depend on numerous factors substantially determined by chance (e.g. questions…
