A blog about the intersection of antitrust, foreign investment control, politics, and everything in between
Game-changing regulations are shaking up the world of football agents. With FIFA's recently approved Football Agent Regulations set to take full effect on 1 October 2023, players, clubs, and agents are bracing themselves for a new era of oversight and transparency. FIFA’s interests and those of the agents seem to be at odds. With first … Continue reading FIFA’s Football Agent Regulations – Next round of antitrust disputes
As some reports indicate, M&A activities in the coming years could involve more targets in financial distress than in the past years. The most prominent example of that unfortunate ‘trend’ might be UBS’ acquisition of Credit Suisse. In that case, the European Commission granted a derogation from the standstill obligation allowing the parties to move … Continue reading Gun jumping: More freedom for targets in financial distress?
The German beer cartel with all its tweaks and twists has been broadly covered both by legal magazines and “normal” newspapers. Unsurprisingly, beer manufacturers agreeing on price increases for one of Germany’s vital products definitely makes for good headlines in the news. Still, I would be remiss if I did not use the chance to … Continue reading The Kölsch saga – Klüngel? Or even more?
There has been no shortage of decisions by European courts dealing with exclusionary abuses cases in recent years. To make these cases and the Commission's own experience more tangible, the Commission has announced the introduction of guidelines in this area. They will be the first of their kind dealing with Art. 102 TFEU (abuse of … Continue reading Exclusionary abuses – more guidance to come
The fact that antitrust proceedings can take a year or two is not really a surprise. But recently, the General Court of the European Union (i.e. first instance!) had to deal with a case concerning a cartel which had started in 1989 and whose members were already fined (for the first time) in 2002. That … Continue reading It ain’t over ‘til it‘s over: Commission wins after 20 years (?)
At the beginning of the year, we took the liberty to pause our blog for a couple of weeks. Reflecting on January in hindsight, there have been three developments which each might not justify a post on its own, but are just too interesting (and a continuation of previous posts) not to be mentioned at … Continue reading Best of the rest – News in January
At the beginning of the year, we blogged about the video-gaming industry and outlined some of the reasons why it might face more scrutiny from antitrust regulators in the future. The obvious trigger for our post was Microsoft’s announcement to acquire Activision Blizzard in a mega $69 billion deal. Although the antitrust proceedings worldwide seem … Continue reading Far from over: Gaming mega deal keeps regulators busy
The decreasing number of leniency applications seems to be one of the main concerns of antitrust regulators (and private litigation firms) these days. Many argue that leniency applicants are an easy target for civil damage claims and need to be better protected in order to increase the number of leniency applications. Whilst this debate is … Continue reading Comeback of leniency: More than a first step?
The question of whether to appeal a cartel fine in court is often not an easy one for the companies involved – not least because some courts in Europe even have the power to increase fines. To give companies new “hope” for the future, this post brings together a number of recent court decisions across … Continue reading Regulators got it wrong: Courts reduce fines across Europe
On this blog, we already observed that cooperations between competitors – be it on the purchasing or selling end – have become a welcomed alternative to M&A projects, especially in times of crisis. Two recent cases of the German Federal Cartel Office (FCO) give helpful guidance on if and how cooperations can be justified even … Continue reading Cooperations – more room in times of crisis?
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