A blog about the intersection of antitrust, foreign investment control, politics, and everything in between
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?!
German foreign investment control has taken centre stage in the last two weeks: After the German government just about (partially) approved a limited Chinese investment in the Hamburg port, this week it has set out to prohibit two Chinese acquisitions in the semiconductor space. Not only the number of difficult reviews in a very short … Continue reading Leaky towards the press, rigid towards China: German FDI review in movement
The decreasing number of leniency applications seems to be one of the main concerns of antitrust regulators (and private litigation firms) these days. Many argue that leniency applicants are an easy target for civil damage claims and need to be better protected in order to increase the number of leniency applications. Whilst this debate is … Continue reading Comeback of leniency: More than a first step?
One question discussed (not only) by antitrust practitioners from time to time is whether and to which extent Art. 101 TFEU applies in the relationship between a joint venture and its parent companies. The European Commission addresses the issue in the Draft Horizontal Guidelines (on which we have already blogged here and here). This post … Continue reading Joint ventures – an antitrust-free zone in the future?
In (EU/German) merger control, M&A deals that significantly impede effective competition are to be prohibited. That rule is set in stone. Right? Not entirely: The German Bundeskartellamt has cleared a transaction that it would generally have had to prohibit, making use of a rarely used provision in German merger control. The case (Westenergie/Rheinenergie) was about … Continue reading Sighting of a rare animal: Clearance for a transaction that raises concerns
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