David Tayar

In a press release dated 16 March 2021, the European Commission ["Commission"] announced the establishment, together with several other competition authorities, of a multilateral working group to analyse the effects of mergers in the pharmaceutical sector. In addition to the Commission’s (...)

By judgment of 27 January 2021 ( KPN BV. v. European Commission, Case T-691/18), the General Court of the European Union ["General Court"] upheld the decision of the European Commission ["Commission"] authorising the acquisition of sole control of Ziggo N.V. ["Ziggo"] by Liberty Global Plc (...)

On September 18, 2020, the French Competition Authority (the "Authority") conditionally authorized the acquisition of Société de financement local ("SFIL") by Caisse des dépôts et consignations ("CDC"). CDC, which until then held 20% of SFIL’s capital, thus acquired almost all of the capital (...)

On the occasion of the 24th Competition Conference of theInternational Bar Association on 11 September 2020, the European Commission (the "Commission") through its Commissioner for Competition Policy, Margrethe Vestager, stated that it will soon be possible to review at European level mergers (...)

In recent months, the competition authorities’ reflections on the issues raised by the digital economy have been particularly nourished at various levels. The issues raised by the digital economy and the role that competition law must play in this respect have been addressed at the national (...)

The Competition Authority (the Authority) adopted on 12 August 2019 a decision authorising, subject to commitments, the creation of the Salto platform, a full-function joint venture, by France Télévision, TF1 and Métropole Télévision (M6) (the Parent Companies). The Authority has thus given (...)

On 12 March 2019 the French Competition Authority (the Authority) adopted Decision 19-DCC-42 authorising the acquisition of joint control of Bernard Participations by Emil Fray Motors France and Bernard Participations. This operation, initially notified to the Commission (’Commission’) and (...)

During the Nasse Seminar organized the 19th of April of 2013, Pierre Cahuc and David Tayar talked about competition and employment. The seminar was animed by Emmanuel Combe, vice president of the Competition authority. Created at the end of the 1980s within the Forecasting Department, the (...)

Interview conducted by Katrin Schallenberg, Partner, Clifford Chance and David Tayar, Partner, Clifford Chance. Digital actors and platforms have been disrupting markets by bringing together innovation and scalability to unprecedented levels and by unlocking efficiencies in various sectors. (...)

Bolstered by the Conseil d’État’s rejection of Fnac-Darty’s appeals against the decisions of the Chairman of the French Competition Authority on 26 July 2018, the Authority sanctioned this economic operator the next day in a plenary session, in the amount of 20 million euros for failure to (...)

On 27 July 2016, after an in-depth analysis, the French Competition Authority authorised the acquisition of Darty by the Fnac group (Competition AuthorityDecision No. 16-DCC-111 of 27 July 2016).). In order to remedy the competition concerns identified, the Fnac group undertook to divest six (...)

During the Nasse Seminar organized the 9th of November of 2017, David Taylar (lawyer ar Clifford Chance) and Laurent Flochel (economist, vice-president du cabinet Charles River Associate) talked about intellectual property and competitive behaviours in the pharmaceutical industry. This (...)

By its additional decision No. 17-DCC-103 of July 3, 2017 relating to the acquisition of exclusive control of Totalgaz SAS by UGI Bordeaux Holding SAS, the French Competition Authority drew the lessons from the judgment of the Conseil d’État of July 6, 2016, following the appeal filed by (...)

By Decision M.7995, Deutsche Börse / London Stock Exchange, of 29 March 2017, the European Commission has declared the proposed concentration by which the two previously independent undertakings Deutsche Börse AG (³cDBAG³d) and London Stock Exchange Group plc (³cLSEG³d) intend to merge, within (...)

The acquisition of SFR by Numericable, a subsidiary of the Altice Group, was authorized by the French Competition Authority (the "Authority") on October 30, 2014 (Decision No. 14-DCC-160), subject to commitments (the "Operation"). The Authority considered that the Operation was likely to (...)

On 25 January 2017, the European Commission (the "Commission") approved the acquisition of Alere, a US company specialising in diagnostic solutions for infectious and cardio-metabolic diseases and toxicology, by Abbott Laboratories ("Abbott"), a US medical device giant listed on the New York (...)

By a decision of August 4, 2016, the European Commission (the "Commission") has approved, subject to commitments, the acquisition by the French pharmaceutical company Sanofi of the assets related to the Consumer Healthcare division ("Consumer Healthcare") of its German competitor Boehringer (...)

Following an in-depth examination (Phase 2), and a Homeric stock exchange battle which also involved Conforama and its South African shareholder, the Competition Authority (the "Authority") has cleared the transaction, subject to disposal commitments relating to six stores in Paris and the (...)

Following a resolution of the European Parliament of 19 January 2016 on the European Union’s competition policy (2015/2140 INI), Margrethe Vestager, European Commissioner for Competition, in a speech delivered on 10 March in Brussels, questioned the relevance of the notification thresholds in (...)

On 4 February 2016, the European Commission (the "Commission") cleared, subject to conditions, the acquisition of BASE Belgium (³cBASE³d), the third largest mobile network operator (³cMNO³d) in Belgium, by Liberty Global, a cable operator active in the Belgian market via Telenet and operating (...)

Final episode of the long Odile Jacob saga (see our article in the present review Concurrencesn°4-2010, p. 160).). In this judgment, the Court of Justice of the EU (the "Court") dismissed the appeal brought by Éditions Odile Jacob ("Odile Jacob") against the judgment of the Court of First (...)

By judgment of 13 May 2015, in Case T-162/10, the Court of First Instance of the European Union (’the Court’) dismissed the action for annulment brought by the company Niki Luftfahrt (’Niki Luftfahrt’) operating the airline ’FlyNiki’, against the decision of the European Commission (’the (...)

By judgment of 5 September 2014, the General Court of the European Union (the ’General Court’) dismissed the action brought by Éditions Odile Jacob SAS (’Odile Jacob’) against the decision of the European Commission (the ’Commission’) of 13 May 2011 approving, for the second time, Wendel (...)

Pending publication of the decision, reference is made to the €20 million fine imposed by the European Commission (the "Commission") on Marine Harvest ASA ("Marine Harvest"), a Norwegian salmon farmer and processor, for acquiring sole control of Morpol ASA ("Morpol"), a major competitor, nine (...)

There seems to be a move towards an obligation to inform the European Commission of minority shareholdings giving rise to horizontal overlaps or vertical relationships. Following two public consultations launched in 2009 and 2013 as part of the review of the merger control rules, the (...)

By Decision No. 13-D-22 of December 20, 2013, the French Competition Authority (hereinafter the "Authority") sanctioned Copagef SA, at the head of the Castel Frères group (hereinafter "Castel"), in the amount of 4 million euros for failing to comply with the obligation to provide prior (...)

On 10 July 2013, the Competition Authority adopted its Revised Merger Control Guidelines following a consultation process on a draft that the Authority published last February, which attracted 18 contributions from industry associations, economists and law firms (see (...)

On 7 June 2013, the General Court of the European Union (the "General Court") dismissed the action brought by SPAR against European Commission (the "Commission") decision COMP/M.5047 of 23 June 2008 authorising REWE, a leading food retail group in Austria, to acquire sole control of ADEG, a (...)

On 24 May 2013, the European Commission (the ’Commission’) had cleared, subject to commitments, the merger between two specialty paper producers, Munksjö AB (’Munksjö’) and the labels and converting division of Ahlstrom Corporation (’Ahlstrom’). In the course of the Commission’s in-depth (...)

Eur. comm., dec. art. 8, § 3 R.139/2004 of 30 January 2013, UPS/TNT Express, aff. COMP/M.6570 On January 30, 2013, the European Commission (the "Commission") prohibited the proposed United Parcel Service Inc. ("UPS") from acquiring sole control over its competitor TNT Express N.V. ("TNT (...)

Aut. conc., dec. no. 13-D-01 of 31 January 2013 on the situation of the Réunica and Arpège groups with regard to Article I of Article I of the Convention. L. 430-8 C. com The last few months have been unusually rich in news on the subject of breaches of the obligation of prior notification (...)

A new chapter has just been written in the now famous "Ryanair saga". On 27 February 2013, the European Commission (the "Commission") prohibited, for the second time, the proposed acquisition of the airline Aer Lingus by Ryanair (the "Parties"), its most direct rival (the "Operation"). This (...)

The pre-notification phase has proved to be a useful mean to address “upfront” many of the issues that a concentration may raise, without being bound by the strict timetable of the formal review process. It works well but there is arguably still some room for improvement. The (...)

On September 21, 2012, the European Commission (the "Commission") conditionally approved the acquisition of sole control of the core business of UK-based EMI Group Global Limited ("EMI") by Universal Music Group ("Universal", together the "Parties"), a subsidiary of French media and (...)

This set of two papers is derived from the training session organized by the Concurrences Review that was held on 20th March 2012 in Paris. The contributions examine the legal and economic issues that joint ventures may raise in the context of the implementation of merger control rules. (...)

The setting of standards through standard-setting organisations gives rise to two main kinds of problems: royalty-stacking, due to the complementarity of the IPRs involved and hold-up. FRAND commitments are meant to deal with the second issue only. DG Competition is currently investigating (...)

Eur. Com. dec. art. 6, § 1(b) R.139/2004, 5 July 2012, SCA/ Georgia-Pacific Europe, case COMP/ M.6455. The European Commission (the ³cCommission³d) has approved, subject to commitments, the acquisition of sole control of Georgia-Pacific Europe (³cGPE³d), the European arm of the US company (...)

Aut. conc, 02.07.12, N° 12-DCC-92, Acquisition of six companies of the Patriarchal Group by the company Castel Frères The French Competition Authority (the "Authority") has authorized, after a "phase II" review, the acquisition and acquisition of exclusive control by the Castel Frères group (...)

Eur. Comm. dec. art. 6(1)(b), Reg. 139/2004, 13 February 2012, Google/Motorola Mobility, case COMP/M.6381 In August 2011, Google announced its intention to acquire Motorola Mobility (MM), a subsidiary of the eponymous mobile phone manufacturer, for $12.5 billion. Google is the world leader (...)

Aut. conc. dec. no. 12-DCC-20 of 7 February 2012 relating to the acquisition of sole control of Enerest by Électricité de Strasbourg The operation, which was cleared subject to commitments, consisted in the acquisition of sole control of Enerest by Electricité de Strasbourg (ES), an 88.82% (...)

Eur. comm., dec. art. 8, §3 R.139/2004 of 1 February 2012, Deutsche Börse/NYSE Euronext, aff. COMP/M.6166 The decision to prohibit the proposed merger between New York Stock Exchange Euronext Inc. and Deutsche Börse AG, valued at $9.7 billion, is the twenty-second in the history of Community (...)

Eur. comm., dec. art. 8, §1 R.139/2004, 4 May 2011, Votorantim/Fischer/JV, case COMP/M.5907 The present case is another example of an unconditional approval decision at the end of Phase II, which is becoming less and less rare (see, for example, until recently, the UPM/Myllukoskiand Rhein (...)

Eur. Comm, dec. art. 8(2) R.139/2004, 3 May 2011, Hoffmann - La Roche/Boehringer Mannheim, case COMP/M.950 If we look at the issue of commitments, the period covered by this column offers a contrasting landscape. While some were forced to pay a heavy fine and re-notify a transaction that had (...)

This set of three papers is derived from the training session on the multiproducts competition organised by Concurrences Review that has held on the 15th March 2011 in Paris. In the first contribution, Anne Perrot, Vice President of the Competition Authority, exposes the specificities of (...)

Eur. comm., Dec. 8, § 3 R.139/2004, 26 January 2011, Olympic/Aegean Airlines, Case COMP/M.5830 The decision to prohibit the proposed merger between Olympic Air ("Olympic") and Aegean Airlines S.A. ("Aegean") is the twenty-first in the history of Community merger control, and the second in (...)

GCEU, 13 September 2010, Odile Jacob v. Commission, case T-279/04 Although it addresses substantive issues of relevance to merger control (conglomerate effects, in particular), the main interest of the Court’s judgment in the Lagardère case lies in its analysis of the "portage" operation (...)

– Concordant Aut. 9 July 2009, Public consultation on the draft new Merger Control Guidelines The Authority launched on 24 May 2009 a broad public consultation on its draft Merger Control Guidelines. The draft covers all aspects of the subject matter, from questions of scope of control, (...)

CE, 31 July 2009, Fiducial Audit and Fiducial Expertise, No. 305903; against Min. éco, 15 December 2006, Deloitte/BDO Marque et Gendrot, aff. C2006-91 There have been few judgments of the Conseil d’Etat in merger control cases. What is more, the Conseil d’Etat rules on an important issue, (...)

EC Commission, IP/09/895, 10 June 2009, Mergers: Commission fines Electrabel 20 million euros for acquiring control of Compagnie Nationale du Rhône without prior Commission approval On 10 June the European Commission published a press release announcing that Electrabel had been fined €20 (...)

Both Community and French competition law take into account spillover effects in the assessment of joint ventures. However, the EC and French approaches are not fully consistent as to the actual scope and content of the spillover effects analysis. A clarification of the relevant criteria would (...)

Presentation Laurence Idot Professor, Universtité Paris II, European College Director of the Scientific Committee of Concurrences 1. It is in my capacity as head of the journalConcurrences’s scientific committee that I was asked to make this morning’s presentation. I confess that I (...)