A blog about the intersection of antitrust, foreign investment control, politics, and everything in between
One or the other company that has been investigated in a cartel case may know the feeling: In more or less informal discussions with the authority, one is overcome by the impression of not being fully informed about the status of the investigation, while other affected companies could have received more information. Whilst this is … Continue reading Right to equal treatment in cartel cases…or not?
Earlier this month, the German Monopolies Commission published its new Biennial Report: “Competition 2022”. The report is a 325 pages “beast” with six chapters. There is lots of interesting stuff for the antitrust connoisseur in there, but too much ground to cover in a post with a length of our liking. So, this post will … Continue reading Three points from the Monopolies Commission 2022 Biennial Report
As many of our readers might know, the Vertical Block Exemptions and the corresponding Guidelines were just the beginning of a series of new Block Exemptions and Guidelines in Europe. Already in March 2022, the European Commission published its Draft Horizontal Guidelines, which should ultimately become effective as of January 2023. One chapter deals with … Continue reading Bidding consortia: More guidance to come
It is an absolute landmark case: Today, the EU’s General Court has ruled on Illumina v Commission. The case concerns the question whether the EU Commission may conduct merger control reviews of transactions that neither reach the merger thresholds of the Commission nor of Member States. The General Court has confirmed that the Commission indeed … Continue reading EU General Court rules on Illumina/Grail: The EU Commission may call in transactions
Labour markets have been a “trending” antitrust topic for a while (see, e.g., here). And for our readers in the US, and even more so in South Africa, linking labour markets to merger control might not be so new, after all. But if one listens closely in Europe, the effects of M&A deals on labour … Continue reading The next big thing in merger control: Labour markets?
One of the 10 commandments that not only Christians will know is: Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbour. All Most of us have already learned this basic rule of human behaviour in kindergarten regardless of whether and to which faith they belong(ed). Last week, the European Commission opened a formal investigation into … Continue reading A foul as an abuse of market power?
When conducting antitrust compliance trainings or otherwise advising businesses on antitrust compliance, now and then one hears “but the customers want it that way” as a justification for conduct that could raise antitrust issues. A typical response might begin with “That is appreciated, but unfortunately antitrust law is not at the disposal of the customer…” … Continue reading Antitrust is not at the disposal of the customer – a ground-breaking case
A bit overshadowed by other big legislative processes (we know what we are talking about), the Commission has also been actively updating its notices currently not so much in the focus of the public eye. Having made some progress on the simplified procedure in merger control cases already, the Commission recently presented an updated draft … Continue reading Novel or unresolved – The Commission’s draft informal guidance notice
Some of our older readers might recall the TV show “The X-Files”, in which the two FBI agents Scully and Mulder deal with unsolved cases called the X-Files. These cases always had a kind of mystical touch. Not mystical at all is the GAIA-X initiative, in which governments and companies work to design the next … Continue reading The X-Files: No science fiction at all
For years, parity obligations, also called “most favoured nation clauses” or “MFNs”, were hotly debated. There was a policy element to how different regulators treated MFNs, and not least because the European Commission decided to leave enforcement to national regulators, rules across the EU differed (in particular regarding online platforms). The new Vertical Block Exemption … Continue reading An overview of parity obligations
Antitrustpolitics.com 