EU Commission already under pressure to investigate foreign subsidies?

The EU’s Foreign Subsidies Regulation started to apply about a month ago. Most observers expected the regulation’s strongest impact to be on M&A transactions, not least because the European Commission does not exactly seem to have an abundance of staff to deal with the new rules. Yet, the regulator received at least two complaints against … Continue reading EU Commission already under pressure to investigate foreign subsidies? →

No poach agreements: It’s getting expensive

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 →

Less strict rules for parity clauses in Germany?

The German Bundeskartellamt terminated its proceedings regarding price parity clauses against Lieferando, one of Germany's leading food delivery platforms. Since the Bundeskartellamt has been rather critical of price parity clauses in the past, the termination might have come as quite a surprise. This post takes a look at the reasons for terminating the proceedings and … Continue reading Less strict rules for parity clauses in Germany? →

Politics in antitrust – Look no further

Anyone who still doubted that politics play an increasing role in antitrust should by now be convinced of the opposite: The recent appointment of the new Chief Economist at the European Commission is another instance where antitrust made it to the mainstream press across Europe. This post provides a short summary of what happened and … Continue reading Politics in antitrust – Look no further →

EC showing teeth: Record-breaking fine for Illumina AND Grail

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 →

About football shirts and antitrust law

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 →

A new hope for vertical price fixing?

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? →

Clarifications on Foreign Subsidies

The EU’s Foreign Subsidies Regulation will start to apply in about two weeks. While some things are still in limbo, the European Commission has published a Q&A to clarify certain topics. The Q&A admittedly went online earlier this month, but I could not find a good summary so far – so I thought the one … Continue reading Clarifications on Foreign Subsidies →

A golf tie-up and its antitrust implications

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 →

Pharma and mergers – future alignment of multinational competition issues?

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? →