José Rivas

The European Commission has recognized the major impact of the COVID-19 pandemic in European transport systems in general, and in the aviation sector in particular. International aviation has been severely hit, first by the COVID-19 outbreak and second, by diverse national measures adopted (...)

The Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic has been declared an exceptional occurrence, paving the way for more and faster approval of national State aid initiatives in the EU. The massive and unprecedented financial impact on the world economy has led to a number of European governments promising (...)

The European Commission has recognised the Hotel and Leisure sector as one of the sectors hit hardest by the COVID-19 outbreak. The impact of the COVID-19 crisis on the Hotel and Leisure sector is unparalleled. TheEuropean tourism industry is predicted to experience an estimated financial (...)

In 2008, the European Commission decided that Italy had granted unlawful State aid in favour of the hotel industry in Sardinia. Consequently, Italy was required to recover that unlawful aid, totalling at about EUR 13.7 million. On 29 March 2012, the Court of justice upheld the arguments of (...)

On 30 January 2020, the Commission imposed a fine on NBCUniversal for the restriction of sales of film merchandise relating to Minions and Shrek, among others. In June 2017, the Commission opened investigations into the licensing deals entered into by Nike, Sanrio (Hello Kitty), and (...)

The European rules on vertical restrictions are strongly influenced by the EU’s goal of creating a single market, also for Intellectual Property (‘IP’) protected products. Following its e-commerce sector inquiry, the EC started a number of investigations into non-exclusive distribution (...)

On 8 January, the Belgian Competition Authority ("BCA") imposed an interim measure to temporarily suspend the joint venture ("JV") between Orange and Proximus, two of the three main telecom players in the Belgian market. The cooperation between Orange and Proximus relates to the sharing of (...)

In a judgment dated 8 January 2020, the Court of Appeal upheld the decision of the Belgian Competition Authority ("BCA") in which it imposed a fine on the Order of Pharmacists for excluding Medi-Market from the market for pharmacy services (see July edition of Competitive Edge). The Court, (...)

In the beginning of December, the European Commission approved an Important Project of Common European Interest ("IPCEI") to support research and innovation in the battery value chain. The project, which has a funding capacity of up to €3.2 billion, was jointly notified by Belgium, Finland, (...)

On 6 November 2019, the European Commission launched a public consultation on the Horizontal Block Exemption Regulations ("HBERs") – the Research & Development Block Exemption Regulation ("R&D BER") and the Specialisation Block Exemption Regulation ("Specialisation BER"), and the (...)

On 16 October 2019, the European Commission (EC) imposed interim measures on Broadcom. Broadcom is a technology leader in the design, development and supply of a range of semiconductor and infrastructure software solutions, including chipsets for TV set-top boxes and modems. The EC started its (...)

On 15 October 2019, the Belgian Competition Authority ("BCA") imposed a fine of EUR 225,000 on the national Order of Pharmacists for adopting, maintaining and implementing provisions of its Deontological Code that limit the ability of pharmacists to advertise para-pharmaceutical products, in (...)

Five years after winning the support of the European Parliament to become EU Competition Commissioner in the Juncker Commission, the Danish liberal politician Margrethe Vestager has done it again. MEPs backed her candidacy after a three-and-a-half hour hearing on 8th October during which she (...)

On 1 October 2019, the Belgian Competition Authority published a Guide on the "Exchange of Information in the framework of Associations of Undertakings". The Guide sets out the main principles of exchanging information between competitors and how they apply to associations of undertakings, and (...)

On 24 September 2019, the General Court delivered its first two judgements in the series of appeals against European Commission (EC) decisions on tax rulings ordering Member States to recover millions of euros on the basis of state aid rules. In October 2015, the EC ruled that selective tax (...)

In the first predatory pricing case since 2003, the European Commission ("EC") has fined Qualcomm €242million for abusing its market power by engaging, between 2009 and 2011, in below cost sales of its 3G baseband chipsets, key components of mobile devices (see EC press release here). This (...)

On 27 June 2019, the European Commission ("EC") fined Canon €28 million for gun-jumping in its acquisition of Toshiba Medical Systems Corporation ("TMSC"), namely implementing the transaction prior to notification and approval under EU merger control (see the EC press release here). Canon had (...)

The Belgian Competition Authority ("BCA") fined the national Order of Pharmacists EUR 1 million on 28 May 2019, for the use of anticompetitive practices aimed at excluding the Medi-Market Group, an association of (para)pharmacies, from the market for pharmacy services. Previously, the market (...)

On 16 May 2019, in two settlement decisions, the European Commission ("EC") has fined Barclays, RBS, Citigroup, JPMorgan and MUFG 1.07 billion EUR for participating in two foreign exchange spot trading cartels (see EC press release here). “Foreign exchange spot-trading activities are one of (...)

On 13 May 2019 the Belgian Competition Authority ("BCA") conditionally approved Telenet’s acquisition of sole control over De Vijver Media, after a referral by the European Commission ("EC"). The deal was originally notified to the EC on 4 October 2018. The EC already investigated Telenet’s (...)

On 29 April 2019, the European Commission ("EC") announced the adoption of two decisions against Visa and Mastercard, which make binding on Visa and Mastercard commitments that both card schemes have given for a gradual reduction of some of their interchange fees (See press releasehere - Visa (...)

On 25 April 2019, the Belgian Federal Parliament adopted an Act reforming Belgian competition law (please note that the version of the Act adopted by the Parliament is not public yet and our analysis below is based on the fact that no amendments have been adopted to the version which was (...)

Does access to data require a new approach in antitrust aftermarket cases? In an era where data is the new "oil" turning the wheels of the digital economy, antitrust law may need to take a new approach in order to harness the flow of this most valuable commodity. The issue of access to (...)

On 21 March 2019, the Belgian Parliament adopted a proposal amending Belgian competition law to include the concept of abuse of economic dependence in the toolbox of the Belgian Competition Authority (“BCA”) following the example of a number of other EU Member States. Under the new rules, it (...)

On 19 March 2019, the European Commission (“EC”) announced the launch of "eLeniency", its new online tool for companies to submit statements and documents in leniency and settlement proceedings in cartel and in non-cartel proceedings under Articles 101 and 102 TFEU, where an undertaking (...)

On 1 March 2019, the Belgian Competition Authority (“BCA”) published its annual enforcement priorities, which are largely similar to those of 2018: Telecommunications – the BCA notes that the increased reliance on bundled offers in the telecom retail markets has the effect of increasing (...)

On 14 February 2019, the EU General Court annulled the European Commission’s ("EC") State aid decision of 11 January 2016 on Belgian excess profit rulings ("EPR"). Unlike most State tax aid cases, the Belgian EPR case is not about individual aid but about an aid scheme as defined in Article (...)

Between February and May 2019, the European Commission ("Commission") conducted a public consultation evaluating the Vertical Block Exemption Regulation ("VBER") and the accompanying Guidelines on Vertical Restraints ("VGL"). Stakeholders were invited to evaluate the effectiveness, efficiency, (...)

This decision of 22 January 2019 is the next step in an eventful public procurement procedure and it confirms the preference of the Belgian Competition Authority ("BCA") to tackle cases via interim measures. Norkring has a service agreement to transmit the FM broadcasts of VRT that runs (...)

On 4 and 5 November 2019, the European Council’s Working Group on Consumer Protection and Information discussed the latest compromise proposal, as circulated by the Finnish Presidency of the Council, on representative actions for the protection of collective interests of consumers. The Finnish (...)

In two judgments that are of pan-European interest because of their relevance to the interpretation of the EU competition Damages Directive, the Finnish Supreme Court and the Belgian Constitutional Court ruled on limitation periods to bring competition damages claims. The Finnish Supreme (...)

This article has been nominated for the 2013 Antitrust Writing Awards. Click here to learn more about the Antitrust Writing Awards. It could be said that exchange of information is one of the few areas in which the decisional practice of certain National Competition Authorities ("NCAs") is (...)

Why does Article 101(2) TFEU not list concerted practices?* Article 101(2) TFEU states that agreements and decisions by associations of undertakings that contravene Article 101(1) TFEU are null and void. However, it is silent on the fate of concerted practices. Strikingly, apart from a (...)

Concerted practices, greyhounds, swans and alcoholmeters* Adam Smith wrote in the Wealth of Nations that “two greyhounds, in running down the same hare, have sometimes the appearance of acting in some sort of concert. Each turns her towards his companion, or endeavours to intercept her when (...)