Introduction In 2019 several studies have been published and discussions took place about digitalisation, online platforms and competition law. Many of us will probably have read the so-called Crémer, Furman, Stigler, and Lear-reports. The Netherlands did not lag behind. The Dutch government published amongst others a vision on data sharing between businesses and an updated…
Triggered by the technological advancements and the demand created by the awareness regarding the protection of the environment, electric vehicles (“EVs”) has become a centre of attention for the automotive industry. Also, the emission regulations contributed significantly to this change and the players that have been active in the manufacturing of traditional fossil fuelled vehicles…
Protection of competition in the market of Serbia, Montenegro and Croatia is ensured by the relevant competition authorities, namely: in Serbia: The Commission for Protection of Competition, in Montenegro: The Agency for Protection of Competition, in Croatia: The Croatian Competition Agency. The establishment, position, organisation and competences of the Commission for Protection of Competition in…
Introduction The Swiss Competition Commission (“ComCo”) fined Stöckli Swiss Sports (“Stöckli”), a Swiss manufacturer of Skis and other sport products, for vertical price fixing with its dealers with CHF 140’000. The fine was rather low, as Stöckli had filed a leniency application, albeit after ComCo having opened the investigation, and a settlement was reached. The settlement…
In his letter to Government[1] from February this year, the Chairman of the UK Competition and Markets Authority (“CMA”) proposed the introduction of a mandatory and suspensory notification regime in the UK for “larger mergers”. The adoption of this proposal would result in the creation of a hybrid regime in the UK, with the notification…
By 19 July 2018 the Bulgarian competition authority (“the Bulgarian NCA”/ “CPC”) had never blocked a transaction in a merger control procedure.[1] Since then, CPC has prohibited a total of 4 concentrations[2], including proposed acquisitions of the Bulgarian subsidiaries of CEZ A.S. (“CEZ BG group”) by various investors twice.[3] The last prohibition occurred on 24…
The Competition Commission of India (CCI) has released Interim Observations for a market study being conducted by it to understand qualitative aspects of e-commerce in India.[1] It has outlined its scope to understand the market landscape, strategies and issues arising thereunder, without undertaking an examination of breach of competition law.[2] So far, it has divided…
Competition law, at its core, is a case law based practice. The natural habitat of enforcement for competition rules is the consolidation of bilateral and multilateral commercial relationships that we came to know as the system of economy. In an effort to maximize the consumer welfare (and eventually the total welfare via innovation and creative…
Mergers and acquisitions are effective tools for boosting innovation and commercial advancement. With the rising globalism in the circulation of goods and services, undertakings are forced to seek mutually beneficial collaborations to refrain from being outmaneuvered by the creative destruction that defines the way of doing business in the modern day. Vertical integrations that may…
Much has been written of the heightened risk of gun-jumping enforcement by competition regulators overseeing mandatory suspensory merger regimes. This article will examine why merger parties and their advisers must also be alive to ‘gun-jumping’ risks in jurisdictions where pre-merger notification is voluntary and there are no automatic standstill obligations. Alongside the succession of ‘gun-jumping’…
