Standards lie at the heart of the digital economy – without standards, we would not have smartphones, tablets and other key parts of modern life. Europe’s highest court recently delivered a judgment in Huawei v. ZTE explaining when EU competition law will prevent holders of patents that are (...)

On 26 March 2015, the European Commissioner in charge of competition policy, Margrethe Vestager, announced a potential competition inquiry in the e-commerce sector. According to the Commission, the proposed inquiry is aimed at identifying and resolving cross-border barriers to e-commerce in (...)

The interaction between competition rules and intellectual property («IP») rights has long been among the most interesting, controversial and widely discussed issues in competition law. At a first glance, the objectives of IP law and competition rules might seem to be at odds with each other. On the one hand, competition rules prohibit conduct that restricts competition and thereby leads to lower output and higher prices. On the other, IP law creates exclusive rights that limit access to information, technologies and other intangible assets.

On 5 March 2015, the European Court of Justice (CoJ) handed down its judgment in Versalis , concerning the increasing of fines for antitrust infringements where a company is found to be a repeat offender. The judgment raises important questions about the respect for the rights of defence in EU (...)

The interaction between competition rules and intellectual property (“IP”) rights continues to be the source of lively debates in Brussels and other capitals across the globe. IP lawyers lament that competition lawyers do not understand IP rules and that competition intervention undermines the (...)

DG Competition of the European Commission just published its 5th patent monitoring report. It covers patent settlements entered into in 2013. Each year, the Commission claims that the report shows a “steady increase” of patent settlements in general, which supposedly would prove that the (...)

Summary The Advocate General’s advisory Opinion in the Huawei v. ZTE FRAND Case (C-170/13) would, if followed by the full European Court of Justice (ECJ), usher in a significant shift in the playing field in German litigation on Standard essential patents (SEPs). Germany has been known as a (...)

Introduction On 11 September 2014, the Court of Justice (ECJ) rendered its judgment in the Cartes Bancaires case . The ECJ quashed the General Court (GC) judgment for failing to correctly apply the notion of restriction by object. The Cartes Bancaires contains two key messages: first, the (...)

The European Commission (“EC”) has long sought to eliminate so-called harmful tax competition, which it sees as undermining the integrity of the internal market, fair competition and the fiscal sustainability of the Member States. Although the EU Member States remain sovereign in this area, over (...)

On 9 April 2014, the European Commission adopted its new Energy and Environmental State Aid Guidelines (the “EEAG”) which will take effect from 1 July 2014 onwards, replacing the Environmental State aid Guidelines (“EAG”) from 2008, which did not cover State aid to the energy sector. The EEAG set (...)

MOFCOM Shows Teeth Against Gun Jumping* Summary On 20 March 2014, the Ministry of Commerce of the People’s Republic of China (“MOFCOM”) issued a notice announcing that it will make public decisions sanctioning companies failing to notify mergers that meet the filing thresholds. The notice further (...)

Executive Summary On 9 December 2013, DG Comp published its fourth report on the monitoring in Europe of patent settlements. Like its predecessors, the report welcomes the continuously low level of settlements that may give rise to antitrust concerns and trumpets that the overall number of (...)

On 11 June 2013, the European Commission ("Commission") adopted a proposal for a directive on how citizens and companies can bring damages claims under EU antitrust rules. According to the Commission, the proposal serves to remove a number of practical difficulties which claimants face when (...)

By its decision of 18 April 2007, the Commission imposed fines totalling approximately EUR 270 million on several Dutch brewers, including Heineken NV and its subsidiary Heineken Nederland BV, and Bavaria NV, for their participation in a cartel on the Dutch beer market between 27 February 1996 (...)

By its decision of 3 May 2006, the Commission imposed fines totalling over EUR 388 million on a number of companies for their participation in a cartel on the market for hydrogen peroxide and sodium perborate (bleaching agents) between 31 January 1994 and 31 December 2000. Among the companies (...)

By its decision of 11 March 2008, the Commission imposed fines totalling over EUR 32 million on ten companies for their participation in a cartel on the international removal services market in Belgium between October 1984 and September 2003. In particular, the Commission imposed fines of EUR (...)

Today, the Office of Fair Trading ("OFT") launched a review of barriers to entry, expansion and exit in retail banking.[1] The review comes at a time of when the UK Government has significant stakes in a number of major retail banks, which it will wish to divest over time. The purpose of the (...)

I. BACKGROUND The European Commission published the 24th February 2009 a Communication containing its long-awaited Guidance Paper on exclusionary abuses under Article 82 C(Commission Communication – Guidance on the Commission’s Enforcement Priorities in Applying Article 82 EC Treaty to Abusive (...)

This article analyses the three major recent cases dealing with the boundary between EC competition law and intellectual property rights: the Commission’s interim measures decision in the IMS case, the European Court of Justice’s later judgment in IMS and, finally, the Commission’s decision in (...)

This article analyses the three major recent cases dealing with the boundary between EC competition law and intellectual property rights: the Commission’s interim measures decision in the IMS case, the European Court of Justice’s later judgment in IMS and, finally, the Commission’s decision in the (...)

For the third time this year, and the second time this week, the European Court of First Instance ("CFI") has overturned a decision of the EC Commission to block a merger. Once again, the CFI criticized the Commission’s factual findings and its analysis. Within hours of the judgment, (...)

In a critical decision, the European Court of First Instance (“CFI”) reversed the decision of the EC Commission, which had blocked AirTours’ acquisition of First Choice, a rival UK tour operator, under Article 2(3) of the EC Merger Control Regulation on the basis that it would have created a (...)

This article analyses the three major recent cases dealing with the boundary between EC competition law and intellectual property rights: the Commission’s interim measures decision in the IMS case, the European Court of Justice’s later judgment in IMS and, finally, the Commission’s decision in the (...)