Co-authored by Carolin Goldbeck Sports content again!? Just as an opener for a broader topic: As repeatedly discussed on this blog (see, e.g., here and here), antitrust also applies with regard to sport. This is also true for professional football clubs, even though they are usually somewhat above the fray (at least for their fans). However, … Continue reading About football shirts and antitrust law →

I have to admit that golf is not (yet) my sport. However, on my way back from a client meeting last week, I listened to a really interesting podcast regarding the envisaged tie-up between the Professional Golfers' Association (PGA) and Saudi Arabia sponsored LIV Golf and remembered that we briefly mentioned the case in one … Continue reading A golf tie-up and its antitrust implications →

Co-authored by Kaya Ricken One might not see the connection between antitrust and animal welfare at first sight. Truth is that these topics have been closely linked for quite some time now. This became (again) obvious this week, when the German Animal Welfare Initiative (“Initiative Tierwohl”) reacted to the concerns of the German Federal Cartel Office … Continue reading Holy Cow: Antitrust supports Animal Welfare? →

Last week, the European Commission received a merger notification concerning the takeover of the Germany-based market research company GfK by NielsenIQ. Apart from the fact that these two companies are well known in the antitrust community for the market data they provide, one might wonder why the case makes it into our blog (which is … Continue reading Pull & Refile →

Last week I gave a presentation on antitrust trainings in an expert session (yes, I like the topic, see also my previous blog). One participant pointed out that one should catch people with antitrust examples from their everyday life to explain the general idea behind antitrust laws and why antitrust matters (and is of course … Continue reading How to explain the basic idea of antitrust →

The question of whether two companies are potential competitors is key for the antitrust assessment of agreements and cooperations between those companies. While the assessment of potential competition is often not straightforward, the question has significant practical implications – not least with a view to the transformation in many industries and the corresponding number of … Continue reading The complexity of assessing potential competition →

Today we are deviating from our usual pattern. Instead of dealing with a current case or political developments, I want to tell a short fictional story (roughly comparable to the ones I read to my children in the evening). The story has it all: a long-standing business relationship, great expectations and surprising twists. Once upon … Continue reading A regulatory nightmare? →

As our readers now, we have a series about the history of challenging big tech in which we have so far dealt with Microsoft’s interoperability and Media Player case and the Intel case. This post continues the series with another Microsoft case whose origins date back to a time when many other tech companies were … Continue reading A history of challenging big tech – Part III: The Internet Explorer and a (technical) mistake →

Europe's population is not only getting older, people are also staying active in sports for longer and longer. To make this possible, but also to deal with injuries resulting from sporting activities and other physical handicaps (which also affect people even younger than me), there are numerous medical aids – which some might perceive as … Continue reading Are crutches getting cheaper? →