Competition law, Concentrations, Digital markets, Ex ante regulation, Joint ventures, Mergers, Netherlands, Online platforms, Uncategorized

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Introduction On 20 May 2020 the Dutch competition authority (“ACM”) conditionally cleared a new joint venture between transport company Pon Netherlands B.V. (“Pon”) and Dutch rail operator NS Groep N.V. (“NS”) creating a Mobility as a Service (“MaaS”) platform. The case was referred to the ACM by the European Commission (“Commission”) under Article 9 of…

World Competition Law and Economics Review

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We are happy to inform you that the latest issue of the journal is now available and includes the following contributions:   Eva  Van Der Zee, Quantifying Benefits of Sustainability Agreements Under Article 101 TFEU Discussions at the European Commission, in academic journals as well as at conferences for academics and practitioners, indicate that there…

European Commission, European Union, Subsidies, White Paper

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1.  Overview On 17 June 2020, the European Commission (“EC”) issued a White Paper consulting on “Levelling the Playing Field as regards Foreign Subsidies”. These are major new proposals to protect EU companies against perceived unfair advantage from companies benefitting from subsidies from non-EU States. Countries such as China and Russia have already reacted to…

European Union, Four-to-three Merger, Merger control, Merger regulation, Telecommunications

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By Paula Riedel, Thomas Wilson, Athina Van Melkebeke (Kirkland & Ellis)/12 June 2020 In May 2016, the European Commission (“Commission”) blocked CK Hutchison’s (“Hutchison”) £10.25 billion acquisition of Telefónica UK (“O2”).[1] The Commission had previously cleared a series of “4-to-3” telecoms mergers across Europe, subject to increasingly far-reaching remedies.[2] Specific features of the UK mobile…

Competition law, Concentrations, Merger control, Merger notification, Netherlands, Telecommunications, Uncategorized

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Introduction On 19 May 2020, the Act against undesired control in the telecom sector (“Act“) was adopted by the Dutch Parliament. The Act introduces a notification requirement applicable to anyone who has the intention to acquire ‘a controlling interest’ in a ‘telecom party’ if such interest results in ‘relevant influence’ in the telecom sector. If…

Digital competition, European Commission, European Union, Ex ante regulation, Market investigations, Structural competition problems

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On 2 June 2020, the European Commission published its roadmap on the possible introduction of a ‘new competition tool’ that would allow it to initiate market investigations into perceived structural competition problems, with the ability to impose market-wide remedies on companies. The proposal has obvious parallels to the market investigation tools already in place in…

Türkiye, Unfair prices

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Last month, a law package to tackle the social and economic challenges that coronavirus pandemic cause was introduced via the Act No. 7244 on Reducing the Effects of the Novel Coronavirus (COVID-19) Outbreak on Economic and Social Life and Amendments to Certain Acts (“Act No. 7244“)[1]. Among other regulatory and protectionist measures, the Act No….

Abuse of dominance, Double jeopardy, Ne bis in idem, Türkiye

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Introduction The Ankara Regional Administrative Court’s 8th Administrative Chamber (“Regional Court”) recently annulled the decision of the Ankara 2nd Administrative Court (“Administrative Court”)[1], in which a lawsuit against the Turkish Competition Authority’s (“TCA”) Mey İçki-2 decision[2] was dismissed[3]. The Regional Court’s decision is of crucial importance in two ways: (i) first, as mentioned in our…

Blockchain, Digital economy

(UCL Centre for Blockchain Technology)/ /8 Comments

Blockchain is the decentralized database introduced in 2008 to transact and store bitcoins without relying on the bank system, in a time where banks were facing one of the worst crises ever. The logic behind blockchain is to bypass intermediaries by creating a network made up by the same blockchain users where each blockchain participants…

Dominance, Merger control, Merger notification, Switzerland

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Under Swiss law, a proposed concentration triggers a mandatory pre-merger notification if one of the undertakings concerned was held dominant, irrespective of the statutory turnover thresholds. It was previously unclear whether this criterion had to be met at the time of signing or at the time of closing. The authority has now clarified this question….