A blog about the intersection of antitrust, foreign investment control, politics, and everything in between
At the moment, the European Commission has to deal with a number of phase 2 cases. While the outcome still seems to be open, there are already a few interesting observations which will be important to keep in mind going forward. Here is an overview. Contrary to popular belief, the European Commission remained active … Continue reading State of play: The EC‘s ongoing phase 2 mergers
Every now and then, one gets the impression that certain topics are identified as an enforcement trend early on, but in practice fail to meet “expectations”. Antitrust issues in labour markets garnered attention for a while as an increasing number of investigations have gradually come to light. Last week, the Turkish regulator ended a major … Continue reading No poach agreements: It’s getting expensive
Summertime is blockbuster time, and some blockbusters are just too good to be missed. Looking at current trends, sequels still seem to be a safe pair of hands. While I cannot comment on the new Indiana Jones or Mission Impossible yet, my (and potentially the rest of the antitrust world’s) jaw(s) dropped when reading about … Continue reading EC showing teeth: Record-breaking fine for Illumina AND Grail
We like recurring themes on our blog. It has not been long since I wrote a post about the Kölsch part of the German beer cartel. But whilst a beer manufacturer will also be relevant in the following, I promise to leave out the folklore and focus on what the European Court of Justice (ECJ) … Continue reading A new hope for vertical price fixing?
Co-authored by Carolin Goldbeck Those of you who follow this blog closely will remember that we touched upon the Pharmaceutical Merger Task Force, consisting of American and European regulators, in a short paragraph a while ago (here). Back then, we did not see any dramatic changes in the approach of competition authorities to assess mergers … Continue reading Pharma and mergers – future alignment of multinational competition issues?
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 (?)
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