A blog about the intersection of antitrust, foreign investment control, politics, and everything in between
The ruling was admittedly published already at the end of last year, but I feel it did not receive the attention it deserved, and I was anyway interested in taking a deeper dive: The Higher Regional Court of Duesseldorf found that the German Federal Cartel Office (FCO) did not have jurisdiction to review Meta’s acquisition … Continue reading German regulator overturned: No substantial activity in Germany
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
The European Commission has published its Second Annual Report on the screening of foreign direct investments into the EU. The report provides an overview of the current status of foreign investment control, and is accompanied by a (data heavy) Staff Working Document. Here are three learnings from both documents. Just as a reminder: In the … Continue reading Three learnings from the EU’s Foreign Investment Control Report
You might have heard about Tiger Woods being offered up to USD 800 million to join the LIV golf tour, about Real Madrid, Juventus Turin and others intending to form the “Super League”, about ice skaters being prevented to join a certain tournament, or about two federations in the sport of padel clashing with each … Continue reading What do football, golf, ice skating and padel have in common? Antitrust disputes!
It is an absolute landmark case: Today, the EU’s General Court has ruled on Illumina v Commission. The case concerns the question whether the EU Commission may conduct merger control reviews of transactions that neither reach the merger thresholds of the Commission nor of Member States. The General Court has confirmed that the Commission indeed … Continue reading EU General Court rules on Illumina/Grail: The EU Commission may call in transactions
Labour markets have been a “trending” antitrust topic for a while (see, e.g., here). And for our readers in the US, and even more so in South Africa, linking labour markets to merger control might not be so new, after all. But if one listens closely in Europe, the effects of M&A deals on labour … Continue reading The next big thing in merger control: Labour markets?
For years, parity obligations, also called “most favoured nation clauses” or “MFNs”, were hotly debated. There was a policy element to how different regulators treated MFNs, and not least because the European Commission decided to leave enforcement to national regulators, rules across the EU differed (in particular regarding online platforms). The new Vertical Block Exemption … Continue reading An overview of parity obligations
The process for introducing new EU rules on companies that receive foreign subsidies has really sped up. EU lawmakers are now in so-called “trilogue” discussions meant to finalise the “Foreign Subsidies Regulation” still this year. The regulation will affect companies in M&A transactions and in public procurement bids, and will basically introduce yet another review … Continue reading EU Foreign Subsidies Regulation: State of Play
While cooperations between competing undertakings stay under heavy scrutiny, there seems to be a trend of regulators cooperating cross-border. Those cooperations often concern (a growing number of) topics that are perceived to be wider than national, and that regulators might think can only be properly tackled together. Here is a rundown of fora which have … Continue reading Cross-border cooperation of regulators – a trend for many topics
Starting with a spoiler: The answer is a clear YES! The draft Data Act published by the European Commission touches upon and is intertwined with antitrust in many ways. Here is why and how. The European Commission has tabled its proposal for the Data Act. The new rules are meant to introduce “measures for a … Continue reading The Data Act – an antitrust topic?
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