Andreas Reindl is a highly experienced competition lawyer who has worked on a wide variety of competition law matters for nearly thirty years. A member of Van Bael & Bellis’ exceptional EU and UK competition team, Andreas has worked with international clients in the digital, energy, transport, financial and other sectors, advising on the full range of EU competition law issues. Andreas has worked on several high-profile merger investigations initiated by the European Commission and national competition authorities. Notable cases include Halliburton/BHI, where he advised Halliburton in the EU merger control filing and review of its proposed $34.6 billion acquisition of Baker Hughes; London Stock Exchange/Deutsche Börse; and Boeing’s proposed merger with Embraer. Andreas has represented several clients in antitrust investigations by the European Commission and national competition authorities, concerning both abuse of dominance and restrictive practices cases. In addition, he has broad experience advising clients on online distribution, pricing strategies, patents & licensing, and collaboration agreements. He works with several well-known brands and is currently involved in a number of high-profile cases, including the Google/Android case. Andreas receives high praise from clients for being ‘highly attentive’ and able to ‘quickly grasp the main issue, even when limited information is provided’ (Legal 500). Andreas also serves as a senior editor of the ABA Antitrust Committee’s Antitrust Law Journal. He previously served as Director of the Fordham Competition Law Institute at Fordham Law School, New York, and as a Principal Administrator at the OECD’s Competition Division. Prior to joining the OECD, Andreas worked for several years for a major international law firm in Brussels and Washington, DC, practising both EU competition law and US antitrust law.
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On 21 June 2022, the French Competition Authority (“FCA”) announced that it accepted Google’s commitments related to compensating French publishers for the use of their journalistic content in a range of Google’s services. This brings to an end the FCA’s investigation into Google’s alleged abuse of (...)
34
On 16 June 2022, the French Competition Authority (“FCA”) announced that it accepted Meta’s commitments related to practices that would have raise competition concerns in the French market for non-search related online advertising. This clarifies the conditions of access to Meta’s partnership (...)
53
On 10 June 2022, the Spanish Competition Authority (“SCA”) found that Enel Green Power SL (“Enel”), and its parent company Endesa Generación SA (“Endesa”) infringed the Spanish national provision prohibiting abuses of dominant position by taking advantage of its dominant position in the market of (...)
80
On 22 March 2022, the European Court of Justice (the “ECJ”) handed down two judgments highlighting that the European Union’s ne bis in idem principle – the equivalent to the protection against double jeopardy – provides only limited protection in competition law proceedings where the same conduct (...)
273
In its Sped-Pro judgment of 9 February 2022, the General Court of the European Union (“General Court”) for the first time examined the impact of deficiencies in the rule of law in an EU Member State on determining which competition authority in the EU is best placed to examine a complaint (...)
195
Gazprom: General Court confirms Commission’s commitment decision but annuls a decision based on similar grounds to reject a complaint against Gazprom On 2 February 2022, the General Court of the European Union (the “Court”) issued two judgments which follow the European Commission’s (the (...)
344
On 24 January 2022, the Dutch Authority for Consumers and Markets (“ACM”) decided to impose periodic penalties on Apple for its failure to comply with a decision of 24 August 2021 requiring Apple to change its App Store payment rules. In that decision, the ACM found that Apple had abused its (...)
399
On 20 January 2022, the European Commission (“Commission”) issued its (short) final report on the sector inquiry into consumer Internet of Things (“Report”), along with an explanatory Commission staff working document. The Report identifies various practices that may limit competition and justify (...)
216
In a judgment of 19 January 2022, the General Court of the European Union (“Court”) awarded Deutsche Telekom AG (“DT”) € 1.8 million in damages, finding that the European Commission (“Commission”) had wrongly refused to pay default interest on the portion of a fine that DT had initially paid for an (...)
228
According to a press release of 5 January 2022, the German Federal Cartel Office (“FCO”) has decided that Alphabet Inc., including its subsidiary Google (“Google”), is of paramount significance for competition across markets pursuant to Section 19a of the German Act against Restraints of (...)
291
On 15 December 2021, the European Parliament (“Parliament”) adopted its position for negotiating the final text of the so-called Digital Markets Act (Regulation on contestable and fair markets in the digital sector)(“DMA”), shortly after the Council of the European Union (“Council”) had adopted its (...)
354
On 9 December 2021, the Italian Competition Authority (“ICA”) adopted a decision finding that the Amazon group (“Amazon”) had violated Article 102 TFEU and harmed competing providers of e-commerce logistics services by tying the right of retailers on the Amazon marketplace to participate in (...)
199
On 9 December 2021, the European Commission (“Commission”) approved a draft communication containing guidelines on the application of EU competition law to collective agreements regarding the working conditions of solo self-employed persons (“Draft Guidelines”). The Draft Guidelines reflect the (...)
260
On 18 November 2021, the European Commission (“Commission”) published a communication on a competition policy fit for new challenges (“Communication”). There has been a significant push toward a more European Union-centred industrial policy which would support the transition to a sustainable, (...)
315
On 10 November 2021, the European General Court (“EGC” or “Court”) delivered its landmark Google Shopping judgment, the first judicial pronouncement on “self-preferencing” as a viable theory of harm under Article 102 TFEU. The EGC fully endorsed the European Commission’s (“Commission”) decision that (...)
264
On 9 July 2021, the European Commission (“Commission”) published the draft revised Vertical Block Exemption Regulation (“Draft VBER”) and draft revised guidelines on vertical restraints (“Draft VGL”), a key step in the context of the revision of the current regime governing vertical agreements, set (...)
340
On 23 June 2021, the heads of the national competition authorities (“NCAs”) published a joint position paper entitled How national competition authorities can strengthen the DMA (“NCA Paper”). The NCA Paper argues that NCAs are well placed to assist the European Commission (“Commission”) – and (...)
207
In the course of the ongoing review of the application of the EU competition rules to horizontal cooperation agreements, the European Commission (“Commission”) published on 7 June 2021 an inception impact assessment (“IIA”) in relation to potential revisions to the Research and Development Block (...)
613
In a decision of 7 June 2021, the French Competition Authority (“FCA”) accepted a proposed settlement by Google LLC and Google Ireland Ltd (“Google”) with respect to certain online advertising practices. The decision also imposed a € 220 million fine on Google as it concluded that Google’s (...)
222
On 27 April 2021, the Italian Competition Authority (“ICA”) imposed a fine of over € 102 million on Alphabet Inc., Google LLC and Google Italy S.r.l. (collectively, “Google”) after concluding that Google had infringed Article 102 TFEU by refusing to include in Google’s own Android Auto app a third (...)
95
On 20 January 2021, the Regional Court of Munich I (the “Court”) issued two preliminary injunctions against Google Ireland Ltd. (“Google”) and the Federal Republic of Germany, represented by the German Federal Ministry of Health (“the Ministry”), at the request of health platform NetDoktor.de (...)
96
On 16 December 2020, Markslöjd AB, a supplier of lighting products, accepted to pay a fine of SEK 1,780,000 for resale price maintenance. The Swedish Competition Authority (“SCA”) found that Markslöjd AB had violated competition law by entering into agreements with one of its resellers to fix (...)
230
On 15 December 2020, the European Commission (the “Commission”) presented a legislative package consisting of a proposed Regulation on a Single Market for Digital Services (“Digital Services Act” or “DSA”), which creates new rules applicable to providers of online intermediary services, as well as a (...)
74
On 28 September 2020, the competition authorities of Sweden, Denmark, Finland, Norway and Iceland issued a joint memorandum setting out their perspective on competition in digital markets (the “Joint Memorandum”). As previously reported in this newsletter (see, VBB on Competition Law, Volume (...)
47
On 24 September 2020, the Austrian Federal Competition Authority (the “FCA”) published its final report on the sector inquiry into the taxi and private hire car market (the “Report”). The comprehensive sector inquiry was launched in September 2019 to ascertain the effects of amendments to the (...)
96
On 24 September 2020, the UK’s Competition and Markets Authority (“CMA”) modified its leniency guidelines so that companies that apply for leniency after the opening of a retail price maintenance (“RPM”) investigation should only expect to receive a maximum 50% discount in fines. Previously, the (...)
68
On 16 September 2020, the Court of Justice of the European Union (the “ECJ”) delivered a judgment in which it ruled on the status of “court or tribunal” within the meaning of Article 267 Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union of a body which has submitted a reference for a preliminary (...)
182
On 10 September 2020, Advocate General Saugmandsgaard Øe rendered his non-binding opinion in the context of a preliminary reference request from the German Federal Court of Justice on the interpretation of Article 7(2) of Regulation 1215/2012 (“Brussels I Bis”). This Article provides that in (...)
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On 16 July 2020, the European Commission (“Commission”) launched an antitrust sector inquiry into the market for the Internet of Things (IoT) for consumer-related products and services in the EU. According to the Commission, the sector inquiry will focus on consumer-related products and services (...)
53
On 1 July 2020, the German Federal Cartel Office (“FCO”) published the final report on the sector inquiry on smart TVs which revealed serious transparency shortcomings in the privacy policies of all major market players in Germany. The FCO concluded that almost all smart TV manufacturers active (...)
64
On 1 July 2020, the UK’s Competition and Markets Authority (“CMA”) published its final report on its year-long market study into online platforms and the digital advertising market in the UK. The CMA found that existing competition law tools are not suitable for ensuring effective competition in (...)
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One of the most controversial aspects in the recently adopted U.S. horizontal merger guidelines has been the “downgrading” of market definition and market shares in the analysis of differentiated products mergers. Observers have argued that the guidelines not only create too much agency (...)
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