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)/ /15 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….

Competition law, COVID-19, European Commission, State aid

(Kirkland & Ellis, Belgium) and (Kirkland & Ellis)/ /1 Comment

The EU Commission (“EC”) has, for the second time, expanded its Temporary Framework of 19 March 2020 (“Temporary Framework”) to provide national governments with further guidance and additional tools to support distressed companies amidst the economic fallout of the COVID-19 crisis. As noted in our last blog post covering the first amendment to the Temporary…

Anticompetitive agreements, Dawn raids, Labour market, Türkiye, Wage fixing

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Anti-competitive practices in the labor markets have generally not been on the radar of the competition watchdogs. Given the increase in the number of cases dealing with the labor markets within the last five years, this appears to change. The Turkish Competition Authority (“TCA”) contributed to that shift by publishing on May 6, 2020 another…

Ireland, Merger control, Simplified procedure

, (Matheson)/ /1 Comment

As of 1 July 2020, a new “simplified procedure” will be available for certain notifiable mergers which are unlikely to raise a concern of loss of competition. The procedure is more limited in scope and in its benefits than the EU equivalent.  While parties availing of the procedure will be exempt from completing some sections…

Abuse of dominance, Anticompetitive agreements, COVID-19, Excessive pricing, Türkiye

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The Turkish Competition Authority (“TCA”) on March 23, 2020 gave its heads up to undertakings that it was “closely following the price increases”, which it referred to as “opportunistic” during the pandemic[1]. As such, the TCA warned in its announcement that it will impose the highest fines allowed by the Turkish Competition Law on all…

Competition law, Investigations, Ne bis in idem, Türkiye

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Introduction In the previous days, the Turkish Competition Authority (“TCA”) resolved under its decision dated 26.03.2020 and numbered 20-16/234-M to open an investigation against the undertaking operating in the automotive sector in order to re-evaluate its decision dated 24.06.2009 and numbered 09-30/637-150 since it was annulled by the 13th Chamber of Council of States. Given…

European Commission, Gun jumping, Merger control

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On 4 March 2020, the European Court of Justice (“CJEU”) rendered its judgment in the Marine Harvest case.[1] The CJEU dismissed Marine Harvest’s appeal against a European Commission (“Commission”) decision in which the Commission imposed two separate fines of EUR 10 million each for failure to notify a transaction[2] and for implementing that transaction prior…

European Court of Justice, European Union, Restriction by object

(Szecskay Attorneys-at-Law, Hungary)/ /1 Comment

    Sisyphus was a Greek mythological figure who was condemned to roll an immense boulder up a hill only for it to roll down every time it neared the top. Repeating this action for eternity. The quest for a clear and operational methodology for finding a restriction of competition ‘by object’ feels similar sometimes….