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? →

Circumventing a merger prohibition

Even though it is raining while I am writing this, summertime is here, and with it high season for festivals and concerts. Agencies help with organizing and booking artists for these sorts of events. As in any other area, antitrust regulators are tasked with keeping the market open, at least to the extent they have … Continue reading Circumventing a merger prohibition →

Holy Cow: Antitrust supports Animal Welfare?

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? →

FIFA’s Football Agent Regulations – Next round of antitrust disputes

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 →

Pull & Refile

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 →

PR campaigns in antitrust

Antitrust used to be a niche. Known to practitioners and experts, of course. Cases were kept, progressed, and negotiated in that environment. Those times are long gone. We have seen an increasing trend towards companies turning to publicity and PR campaigns as a tool in both merger control and antitrust proceedings. PR work is used … Continue reading PR campaigns in antitrust →

Gun jumping: More freedom for targets in financial distress?

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? →

How to explain the basic idea of antitrust

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 →

Simplifying EU merger control filings

Today, the European Commission adopted a package to simplify its merger control process for transactions that do not raise concerns. Many practitioners will agree that in the past, opting to submit a simplified filing did not necessarily simplify or expedite a case. Let’s take a look at how the Commission intends to change that. Merger … Continue reading Simplifying EU merger control filings →

The Kölsch saga – Klüngel? Or even more?

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? →