A blog about the intersection of antitrust, foreign investment control, politics, and everything in between
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?
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
In the past, the European Commission has often made significant contributions to the EU budget through its fines. This post examines whether that was also the case last year and takes a brief look at the decisions that had a significant impact on the European Commission's cash position. Fines imposed in 2022 In … Continue reading The 2022 cash balance of the European Commission
We are back from the break! This post covers a topic dear to lawyers and their clients: Legal Professional Privilege. In a ruling last month, the European Court of Justice clarified – some say expanded – the scope of Legal Professional Privilege, granting greater protection to the lawyer-client relationship. While the ruling did not relate … Continue reading Legal Professional Privilege and Antitrust
It is this time of the year again: When you wander around Christmas markets, you can smell mulled wine and Christmas cookies everywhere, people are doing their (final) gift shopping, the company is coming together for the last party of the year (in some cases for the first time after the Covid break), and Last … Continue reading Christmas and antitrust
It goes without saying that liability is one of the crucial issues in competition law enforcement. From the perspective of antitrust regulators, it makes no sense to conduct longstanding investigations and to impose fines if undertakings may easily escape liability. Fines imposed by regulators are meant to deter the undertaking concerned as well as other … Continue reading Liability for cartel infringements: How do concepts differ and why is decisive influence so important?
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 German Bundeskartellamt has published an interim report on its ongoing investigation into fuel refinery and wholesale. While the regulator has so far found no indications of illegal agreements on prices, it will continue to investigate whether market participants might have breached antitrust law. At the same time, the findings could fuel (no pun intended) … Continue reading Refineries and fuel wholesale: More reason for new regulatory powers?
When people talk about Switzerland these days, they usually talk about FIFA, whose headquarters are in Zurich. Although there are many topics one could write about when it comes to FIFA, even in relation to antitrust law, this post does not deal with football, but with an area where Swiss and German cooperation is about … Continue reading The end of Swiss neutrality?
Only recently, we have blogged about cooperations in times of crisis (here). The string of bad news does not seem to end. So, one might ask the question whether it is (finally) time to relax antitrust rules and release companies from the firm grip of antitrust authorities (in which some companies claim to find themselves … Continue reading Competition in times of economic turmoil?!
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