Introduction By judgment of 10 April 2024, the General Court (GC) annulled Decision 19.4.2018 – SA.37433 of the European Commission (EC) finding that Danish legislation concerning charges for wastewater treatment did not constitute State aid. In my view, the GC misapplied the Market Economy Operator Principle (MEOP) in this case when it assessed the legislation…
2023 proved another fruitful year for the Belgian competition law scene. The ambitious agenda of the Belgian Competition Authority (“BCA”) resulted in a busy and impressive enforcement record. To sum up a couple of highlights in a single sentence, the BCA: was the first competition authority to apply the landmark Towercast judgment, conducted several sectoral…
Although 2023 was not a year of significant changes to the competition legislative landscape in Cyprus, it witnessed the implementation of competition law developments from 2022, in both substantive and ancillary legislation. Regulatory background In Cyprus, competition law is governed by the Protection of Competition Law of 2022 (Law No. 13(I)/2022). Law 13(I)/2022, in…
In light of recent information about new probes under the DMA and the DSA, and the growing interest in enforcement of the draft AI Act, we decided to explore what investigatory powers are available to the European Commission and local authorities under these regulations, and more specifically how the enforcing authorities can conduct dawn raids…
In a preliminary ruling issued on 14 March 2024, the District Court in Warsaw (DCW) granted Ceneo Ltd. an interim injunction in respect of non-monetary claims against Google Ireland Ltd. to cease acts of unfair competition on the Polish territory, consisting in the creation of market entry barriers for the plaintiff. This ruling precedes (temporarily…
On 30 April 2024, AG Szpunar issued his Opinion in Case C-650/22, FIFA v BZ. This gives the Court an opportunity to revisit and apply the December 2023 trilogy of sports cases decided by the Grand Chamber, which I have discussed in the Revista de Derecho Comunitario Europeo and which have been nicely contextualized by…
On 3 May, the EC published a policy brief on labor markets. The existing legal framework allows the EC and EU national competition authorities to take decisive action against anticompetitive agreements in labor markets. Wage-fixing and no-poach agreements are detrimental to competition in labor markets and should generally be qualified as restrictions by object. Wage-fixing…
Ever since its introduction in 2021, Section 19a of the German Act against Restraints of Competition (Gesetz gegen Wettbewerbsbeschränkungen or “GWB”) has attracted attention, not only in Germany, but also around the globe. Through this provision, the national legislator strengthened the regulatory framework against potentially anti-competitive practices by specific market players, namely “undertakings of paramount…
The FTC first proposed to ban essentially all employer-employee non-competes throughout the US while I was a Commissioner. At that time, many — including me – expressed concern that the FTC did not have the authority to issue a broad rule overturning dozens of state laws and negating more than 30 million existing contracts. We…
At the crack of dawn, the European Commission embarked on a milestone enforcement endeavor: the first unannounced inspection under the new EU Foreign Subsidies Regulation (FSR)! The European Commission, in tandem with national competition authorities, conducted its first dawn raids under the FSR at the Polish and Dutch offices of Nuctech, a Chinese company specialized…
