I. Setting the scene: The EU policy agenda The European Union (EU) treaties have set out a particular goal: the establishment of the single market. Achieving the single market is an objective with unclear boundaries regarding tools, stages and expected final outcome. The EU treaties established a goal that implied a voyage into the unknown….
Recent Developments in Canadian Cartel Enforcement: Is Business Becoming Immune to the Competition Bureau’s Immunity/Leniency Programs? Charles Tingley, Mark Katz, Anita Banicevic As noted in our July 26/19 post on Recent Developments in Canadian Merger Review, merger enforcement in Canada is already seeing the impact of the March 2019 appointment of Matthew Boswell as the…
Following the entry of EU-Ukraine Association Agreement (“Agreement”), Ukraine adopted basic state aid regulations which became effective from August 02, 2017. Bringing Ukrainian state aid regulations in compliance with the EU legislation is expected to come soon to a more definitive stage. Despite the progress made during the first two years when the state aid…
Introduction Most Competition Authorities the world-over that are involved in ex-ante or ex-post merger review process use tools that are in some way universally accepted. This is because these tools have been developed and tested over time. Some of these tools include the merger notification thresholds for determining nexus, the market definition tools to determine…
Canon, the Japanese imaging and optical products manufacturer, has been fined €28 million (US$ 31.8 million) for implementing its acquisition of Toshiba Medical Systems Corporation (TMSC), before it was approved by the Commission, which is in breach of EU merger control rules. The fine was announced by the European Commission on 27 June 2019. …
On July 17, 2019, the German Bundeskartellamt (Federal Cartel Office, “FCO”) terminated its dominance probe into Amazon’s business terms towards sellers on its marketplace after Amazon agreed to various changes, see press release here here. Amazon will implement the changes within 30 days, not only in Germany, but for all of its marketplaces in Europe,…
The affair of deep discounting and predatory pricing is not unknown to the market. In fact, the same has been a conundrum in the e-commerce market for a long time. The brick and mortar retailers have been accusing the e-commerce players of selling the products below its cost price by offering disruptive discounts. According to…
On 22 July 2019, the European Commission published a new State aid Recovery Notice on its website (publication in the Official Journal of the European Union will follow).[1] The new Notice replaces the Recovery Notice of 2007[2] which was introduced to address the slow and sometimes inadequate implementation of State aid recovery decisions by EU…
RECENT DEVELOPMENTS IN CANADIAN MERGER REVIEW: NEW COMMISSIONER MEANS NEW ENFORCEMENT AGENDA Anita Banicevic, Charles Tingley, Mark Katz In March 2019, Matthew Boswell was appointed to head the Canadian Competition Bureau (“Bureau”) as the country’s newest Commissioner of Competition (“Commissioner”). In that capacity, Mr. Boswell is responsible for the enforcement and administration of Canada’s Competition Act (Act”), including…
Flashback In January 2019, the Bulgarian Commission for Protection of Competition (“BCPC”) issued a Statement of Objections against in total 24 Bulgarian undertakings for bid-rigging in public procurement procedures under the National Program for Energy Efficiency of Multifamily Residential Buildings (“Energy Efficiency Program”), carried out in the municipalities of Targovishte (Northeast Bulgaria) and Gotse Delchev (Southwest…
