A blog about the intersection of antitrust, foreign investment control, politics, and everything in between
It may sound counterintuitive: Striking a deal with a regulator to conclude a cartel investigation, only to later challenge the very same decision in court. The General Court recently had to deal with this situation in relation to the Ethylene cartel and clarified some important aspects of the European settlement procedure. Here is what companies … Continue reading Agree to disagree: Settlement decision challenged in court
This week has seen dawn raids in construction chemicals and cartel fines in pharma. What often follows such events in the long run are cartel damage claims. While they have become an essential part in the daily business of many antitrust practitioners, for most companies they are rare events, be it as a claimant or … Continue reading Follow-on damage claims
The saga of Illumina/Grail has written its next chapter: Yesterday, the European Commission ordered Illumina to divest Grail and restore the situation prior to the acquisition. This post takes a look at the prerequisites for such an order and its implications. As a quick reminder, in September 2020, US biotechnology company Illumina agreed to acquire … Continue reading European Commission orders unbundling
Wire harnesses have already been subject of a cartel decision. However, this time they are subject of a legitimate cooperation. Last month, the German Federal Cartel Office (FCO) declared that it has no objections to a cooperation organized by the "Arena2036 Research Campus", which aims at standardizing the production of wire harnesses. While the FCO's … Continue reading Wire harnesses – this time subject of a lawful cooperation and not of a cartel
The week got off to the worst possible start for Booking: On Monday, the European Commission prohibited Booking’s proposed acquisition of eTraveli, one of the main providers of flight online travel agency services in Europe (we have already reported about the case here). In this post, I summarize the key points of the decision to … Continue reading The sky is not the limit
Practitioners often criticize the lack of transparency in FDI proceedings in Germany (and elsewhere). The fact that decisions are not made public further adds to that lack of transparency. So, the inaugural meeting of the German “Forum Investitionsprüfung”, which was also attended by many representatives from German ministries, presented a valuable opportunity to gain insights … Continue reading New German FDI association – Learnings from the first annual meeting
News broke yesterday that the German government prohibited the acquisition of 45% of the shares in a German satellite company by a Chinese acquirer. The notable twist: The acquirer already held 53% of the shares in the target. Kleo Connect is a German start-up that wants to provide global satellite data communications. 53% of its … Continue reading Germany blocks the full acquisition of an already majority-owned company
Parties, which are of the opinion that their interests are affected by a merger, have the opportunity to intervene in a case in order to pursue their interests – also during EU court proceedings. Most recently, this played a role in Illumina/Grail (we've reported on that case several times, see inter alia here). In this … Continue reading Interventionism before EU courts
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
It is said that things slow down over the summer. However, for friends of European merger control, there are several new developments that make you sit up and take notice. These cases concern merger control evergreens like gun-jumping and merger control jurisdiction. A potential gun jumping case… About a month ago, the European Commission announced … Continue reading The latest on gun jumping and merger control jurisdiction from the European Commission
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