Digital, Digital competition, Digital economy, Digital markets, Digital Markets Act, Double jeopardy, Hungary

(University Villanueva, Spain)/ /Leave a comment

The Digital Markets Act (DMA) is set out as a complementary and separate regulatory instrument to EU competition law as well as to the application of national competition law provisions at the Member State level. In parallel, the regulation’s legal basis is Article 114 of the TFEU. Fragmentation in digital rulemaking was to be detached…

Austria, Competition proceedings, Confidentiality, Damages, Digital, Digital competition, Digital economy, Digital markets, Digital Markets Act, Digitisation, Disclosure, Enforcement, European Commission, Evidence, Germany, National competition authorities (NCAs), Procedures, Proportionality, Regulation

(University of Vienna, Austria) and (University of Vienna)/ /Leave a comment

The Digital Markets Act (DMA) introduced an innovative framework aimed at promoting contestability and fairness in digital markets. In addition to imposing a multitude of substantial obligations on gatekeepers, the DMA incorporates a sophisticated and multi-faceted enforcement system. The European Commission assumes the primary role as the enforcer of the DMA, while the Member States…

Antitrust, Türkiye

, , (ACTECON)/ /Leave a comment

Introduction In recent years, the Turkish Competition Authority (“TCA”) has markedly intensified its scrutiny of undertakings operating in the cosmetics sector with greater frequency, predominantly based on allegations of resale price maintenance and the restriction of online sales in this industry. In most of these investigations, the relevant undertakings have admitted the violation and applied…

Advocate General, Art. 22, Merger regulation, Merger Thresholds, Mergers

(College of Europe)/ /Leave a comment

Introduction On March 21st Advocate General Emiliou handed down his Opinion in Joined Cases C-611/22P and C-625/22P, respectively Illumina Inc. v. European Commission and Grail LLC, and Illumina Inc. v. European Commission. One can argue that the Emiliou Opinion is an exercise in throwing the proverbial kitchen sink at the position of the European Commission…

Competition enforcement, Ex ante regulation, Foreign direct investment, Fundamental rights, Hungary, Industrial policy, OECD, Regulation, Relative Market Power, Structural competition problems

(Szecskay Attorneys-at-Law, Hungary)/ /Leave a comment

Is competition law fit for purpose? Do we need better tools to make markets fair? How far should government go to ‘fix’ market structures? It’s impossible to attend an antitrust conference these days without discussing these questions under the umbrella of competition & industrial policy. From decades of broad consensus championing competitive neutrality and ‘letting…

Canada, Foreign investment

, , , (Davies Ward Phillips & Vineberg LLP, Canada)/ /Leave a comment

After an initial period of indifferent interest, the current Canadian government continues to toughen its approach to the review of foreign investments in Canada. Two important developments in March 2024 underscore this trend. First, the government enacted substantial amendments to the Investment Canada Act (ICA) on March 22, 2024.These amendments, the most significant since 2009,…

China, European Champions, European Commission, Foreign subsidies, Foreign Subsidy Regulation

(Stibbe)/ /Leave a comment

The FSR and public procurement The primary objective of the Foreign Subsidies Regulation (FSR) is to address the influence of foreign subsidies that may distort the integrity of the EU’s internal market. This encompasses scenarios where recipients gain an unfair advantage enabling them to secure public procurement contracts within the EU at the expense of…

Competition Law 2023, Spain

, , (Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton LLP)/ /Leave a comment

Below we cover the main competition law developments in Spain in 2023, concerning (i) institutions and legislation, (ii) antitrust, (iii) mergers, and (iv) State aid. The selection, as usual with these lists, is partly subjective.   Institutions and Legislation Royal Decree-Law 5/2023 Reforms the Spanish Competition Law On 29 June 2023, Royal Decree-Law 5/2023 approving…

Foreign direct investment, Legislation, Mergers

, , , (Mayer Brown)/ /Leave a comment

INTRODUCTION On 24 January 2024, the European Commission (“Commission”) unveiled its proposals to reform the current EU Foreign Direct Investment Screening Regulation 2019/452 (“FDI Screening Regulation”). This forms part of a wider package of five initiatives to strengthen economic security in the EU following the “growing geopolitical tensions and profound technological shifts”.[1] Factors such as the desire to protect…

Competition Law 2023, Switzerland

, (Lenz & Staehelin)/ /1 Comment

The year 2023 was an eventful year from a Swiss Competition perspective. With the merger of the two Swiss banks UBS and Credit Suisse in March 2023, the Swiss financial market and Swiss merger control were immediately in the news around the world. However, there were also other important competition law developments in 2023. Namely,…