Hendrik Viaene

The Regulation of the European Parliament and of the Council on foreign subsidies distorting the internal market was published in the Official Journal of the EU on December 23, 2022. The Regulation, referred to as “the Foreign Subsidies Regulation”, or “FSR”, aims to redress the perceived (...)

The European Parliament and Council Regulation (EU) 2022/1925 on contestable and fair markets in the digital sector (Digital Markets Act or “DMA”) entered into force on November 1, 2022 (OJ L 265, 12.10.2022, p. 1). Certain provisions of a preparatory nature apply as from that date. The (...)

On August 1, 2022 the EU Court of Justice (CJEU) gave a preliminary ruling on the interpretation of the product scope of a cartel found to exist by the EU Commission (EC) in its Decision dated July 19, 2016, C (2016) 4673 final, in Case AT.39824 – Trucks (the Decision). This Decision led (...)

In Illumina v Commission, the General Court has confirmed the authority of the European Commission (EC) under Article 22 EU Merger Regulation (EUMR) to examine a transaction that does not have a European dimension, but which is the subject of a referral request made by a Member State – even if (...)

The GCEU upheld the decision of the EC accepting a referral request from France, as joined by other Member States, asking it to assess the proposed acquisition of GRAIL by Illumina (Judgment of July 13, 2022, Case T-227/21, Illumina, Inc; v Commission). Background On September 21, 2020, (...)

On June 30, 2022, the Council of the European Union (Council) and the European Parliament (Parliament) reached a political agreement on the Regulation on foreign subsidies distorting the internal market (FSR or Regulation). The FSR aims to redress the perceived regulatory gaps left by (...)

Summary The CJEU on June 16, 2022, partially annulled a EC decision due to a procedural breach, whilst maintaining the imposed EUR 116 million fine. The CJEU found that the EC’s decision did not give the companies opportunity to rebut all infringements separately. At the same time, the (...)

On June 15, 2022, the EU General Court (GCEU) annulled the EU Commission’s (EC) decision C (2018) 240 final dated January 24, 2018 in Case AT.40220 in which the EC had imposed a fine of EUR 997.439 million on Qualcomm Inc. (Qualcomm) for having allegedly abused its dominant position on the (...)

In last year’s EU Competition Review, we reported on the draft of the new Vertical Block Exemption Regulation (VBER). On June 1, 2022, the new VBER finally entered into force. At the same time, the EC published a revised version of the accompanying Vertical Guidelines. These two instruments (...)

On June 27, 2019, the EC imposed two fines totaling EUR 28 million on Canon in the context of its acquisition of Toshiba Medical Systems Corporation (TMSC). The first fine of EUR 14 million was levied for Canon’s failure to notify the EC prior to the implementation of the transaction in (...)

On May 16, 2022, the Belgian Competition Authority (BCA) published its long-awaited notice on enforcement priorities for 2022 (Notice). The BCA explains that, with a view to making the best use of its resources, it will focus its interventions on matters where the expected positive effect of (...)

Procedural and Factual Background On November 9, 2010, the EU Commission (EC) imposed fines (totaling nearly EUR 800 million) on multiple air freight carriers for their participation in the “air freight cartel” (the 2010 Decision). The case was opened following an immunity application made (...)

On March 24, 2022 the Council of the EU and the European Parliament reached political agreement on the “Regulation of the European Parliament and of the Council on contestable and fair markets in the digital sector” (Digital Markets Act or DMA). The political agreement comes just 15 months (...)

To mitigate the negative economic and social consequences of Russian military aggression against Ukraine and to lessen the effect of the restrictive economic measures taken in response to the crisis, as well as retaliatory counter measures, the European Commission adopted the Temporary Crisis (...)

On March 21 2022, the European Competition Network (ECN), the network of authorities comprising the European Commission, the EFTA Surveillance Authority and the national competition authorities of all EU Member States (NCAs), issued a joint statement on the application of competition law in (...)

The European Commission consults Member States on its draft proposal On March 10, 2022 the European Commission (Commission) sent a draft proposal to EU Member States with the aim of establishing a State aid Temporary Crisis Framework to support the EU economy in the wake of Russia’s invasion (...)

On March 7, 2022, changes to both the Belgian Code of Economic Law (CEL) as well as the Belgian Criminal Code (BCC) were published in the Belgian Official Gazette (Belgisch Staatsblad, Moniteur belge). The main changes include: Introducing a filing fee in notifications of concentrations (...)

At the start of the year, companies offering or considering offering rebates were given further guidance on the limits of such practices. The GCEU’s judgment of January 26, 2022 annulled the EUR 1.06 billion fine against Intel Corporation (Intel) in the 2009 EC decision. The judgment is the (...)

The EC’s review of Illumina’s acquisition of GRAIL raises two novel issues: the assertion of jurisdiction by the EC over transactions that do not meet any national or EU jurisdictional merger control tests, and the use of interim measures to stop parties closing a transaction where the EC has (...)

On 6 October 2021, the CJEU issued its judgment in Case C-882/19, Sumal, S.L. v Mercedes Benz Trucks España, S.L. (EU:C:1987:418), and confirmed that follow-on damages actions can be brought against subsidiaries of companies found to have infringed EU competition law. The victim of an (...)

This Special Issue collects all contributions available in the e-Competitions database relating to State aid and taxation. This topic has been at the source of many a heated debate. When reviewing the existing European Commission (‘Commission’) decisional practice and the case-law of the (...)

On September 22, 2021, the EU General Court (GC) upheld a decision from the European Commission (Commission) by which it fined telecommunications operator Altice for gun jumping (T-425/18, Altice Europe v Commission). In particular, the GC affirmed that the Commission could impose two separate (...)

On 22 September 2021, the GCEU upheld a decision from the EC by which it fined telecommunications operator Altice for gun-jumping. In particular, the GCEU affirmed that the EC could impose two separate fines: a fine for implementing a concentration prior to its clearance, and a fine for (...)

On 16 September 2021, the CJEU delivered its judgment on whether the Belgian system of excess profit rulings (EPRs) constituted a scheme or not. The CJEU set aside the GCEU’s judgment that annulled the EC’s decision qualifying the EPRs as an aid scheme. The CJEU referred the case back to the (...)

On 14 July 2021, the GCEU dismissed the action brought by Nike and Converse against the EC decision to initiate a formal State aid investigation concerning certain advance tax rulings issued by the Dutch tax authorities for the benefit of Nike and Converse. Background In 2019, the EC (...)

By decision of 20 May 2021, the EC found that Bank of America, Natixis, Nomura, RBS (now NatWest), UBS, UniCredit and WestLB (now Portigon) breached EU antitrust rules through the participation of a group of traders in a cartel on the primary and secondary markets for European Government Bonds (...)

On 12 May 2021 the GCEU confirmed the EC’s decision of 20 June 2018 that the tax rulings which allowed the Engie group to partially escape tax in Luxembourg constituted illegal State aid within the meaning of Article 107 (1) TFEU. Background As from September 2008, the Luxembourg tax (...)

On 20 April 2021, the EC issued its settlement decision by which it fined Deutsche Bahn (DB) and Société Nationale des Chemins de fer belges/Nationale Maatschappij der Belgische Spoorwegen (SNCB) a total of approximately EUR 48 million for participating in a cross-border customer allocation (...)

The European Commission wants to be able to block or conditionally approve transactions, mainly in the digital economy and in the pharmaceutical sector, even when the thresholds for notification are not met. In publishing its new Article 22 Guidance, the Commission has significantly expanded (...)

On 26 March 2021, the EC adopted its “Guidance on the application of the referral mechanism set out in Article 22 of the [EUMR] to certain categories of cases.” The adoption of this novel piece of guidance reflects recent concerns on the part of the EC that certain competitively significant (...)

On 25 March 2021, the CJEU dismissed all the appeals brought by Danish pharmaceutical company H. Lundbeck A/S and five generic manufacturers against the judgments of the GCEU, thus upholding a decision of the EC on patent settlement agreements between Lundbeck and five generic manufacturers (...)

As the incumbent telecommunications operator in Slovakia, Slovak Telekom a.s. (ST) offers broadband services on its fixed copper and fibre optic networks. ST’s networks also include the local loop, i.e., the physical lines which connect the subscriber’s telephone termination point with the (...)

On 18 March 2021, the CJEU ruled on the appeal by Pometon SpA against the GCEU’s judgment in the steel abrasives cartel case. The CJEU ruled that the GCEU had breached the principle of equal treatment when recalculating the EC’s fine imposed on Pometon, the only non-settling party in this (...)

On 16 March 2021, the CJEU delivered its judgments in Cases C-562/19 P, Commission v Republic of Poland (EU:C:2021:201) and C-596/19 P, Commission v Hungary (EU:C:2021:202), ruling that the Polish tax on the retail sector and the Hungarian advertisement tax do not breach EU State aid rules. (...)

On 4 March 2021, the CJEU rendered its judgment in Case C-362/19, European Commission v Fútbol Club Barcelona, concerning State aid arising out of the taxation of professional sports clubs in Spain. In July 2016, the EC found that Spain had unlawfully implemented aid in the form of a (...)

On 10 February 2021, the EC concluded its first excessive pricing investigation in the healthcare sector by accepting commitments from Aspen Pharmacare Holdings Ltd and Aspen Pharma Ireland Limited (collectively, Aspen) (Decision C (2021) 72 final in Case AT.40394, Aspen). The decision (...)

On 20 January 2021, the EC fined Valve Corporation and five publishers, Bandai Namco, Capcom, Focus Home, Koch Media and ZeniMax, a total of EUR 7.9 million for breaching antitrust rules by partitioning the EEA market. Background Valve, together with the five publishers, restricted (...)

On 14 January 2021, the CJEU delivered a preliminary ruling in which it clarified when a bid-rigging cartel offence comes to an end. This issue is particularly relevant with regard to the imposition of fines within the limitation period. Background In April 2007, Fingrid Oyj, the company (...)

Belgian Competition Authority fined an undertaking in a merger control investigation for failure to provide information on ti…* On 30 September 2015, the Competition College of the Belgian Competition Authority ("the College") imposed a fine of EUR 50,000 on the press group Sanoma Media (...)

I. The facts On 15 September 1993, an exclusive motor vehicle distribution agreement was signed between Fiat Group Automobiles Belgium NV and TCI Auto Service NV, as a result of which TCI was granted the exclusive distributorship for a number of towns. Fortis Bank NV gave a first call (...)

BE31 [...] & Consorts/Chambre Nationale des Huissiers CONC-P/K-08/0016 Competition Council 08.12.11 I. The facts On 9 July 2008, a number of bailiffs lodged a complaint with the Belgian Competition Council claiming that the National Chamber of Bailiffs infringes Articles 2 and 3 of the (...)

I. The Facts The judgment of the Brussels Court of Appeal is one of a long line of decisions and court rulings taken by the European Commission, national competition authorities, the General Court and the Court of Justice concerning De Beers’ decision to alter its distribution system for rough (...)