Marc van der Woude

The Fifth annual conference of the Global Competition Law Centre, held in Brussels on 11-12 June 2009, was dedicated to the Commission’s review of EC Regulation 1/2003. These contributions are the summaries of six work groups: I) The directly applicable exception system and the direct (...)

IFC, 27 September 2006, GlaxoSmithKline Services, Case T-168/01 The debate: restriction by object or effect Since the end of the nineties and in particular since the adoption of Regulation 2790/1999 on vertical restraints, the Commission has been advocating a more economic analysis of (...)

CA Paris, 1st ch. H, 26 September 2006, Hôtel Le Bristol and others.against Cons. conc., Dec. no. 05-D-64 a so-called Parisian palace affair Do economic actors always act rationally? This question is implicit in the Court of Appeal’s ruling on the exchange of information between six Parisian (...)

ECJ, 21 September 2006, JCB Service v. Commission, case C-167/04 P This case concerns the notification by JCB of several distribution agreements in 1973. According to the Commission, this notification did not cover all distribution practices and in particular not those aimed at partitioning (...)

ECJ, 18 July 2006, Meca-Medina and Majcen, case C-519/04 P This case concerns the suspension of two professional swimmers by the International Swimming Federation for the use of certain substances prohibited by the IOC Anti-Doping Rules. According to the two sportsmen and women, these rules (...)

ECJ, 13 July 2006, Commission v. Volkswagen, case C-74/04 P In 2001, the Commission fined the Volkswagen group EUR 30.96 million for resale price-fixing practices. The group was accused in particular of restricting dealers’ ability to grant discounts on the sale prices of the Passat model. (...)

EC Comm. notice art. 27(4) R. No. 1/2003, Universal International Music BV/MCPS a.o. (Cannes extension agreement), Case COMP/38.681 See the DG Competition website In January 2006 the Commission informed thirteen collecting societies and the five major music publishers that their agreement (...)

CFI, 2 May 2006, O2 v. Commission, Case T-328/03 By its judgment of 2 May 2006, the Court of First Instance confirmed and clarified its case-law M6 v Commission (Case T-185, 216, 299 and 300/00 of 8 October 2002) concerning the nature of the competitive analysis required by the first (...)

EC Commission, 22 March 2006, FAPL (Premier League), Case COMP/C-2/38.173, C(2006)868 final. EC Comm, Press Release IP/06/356 Following its decision-making practice in the UEFA (EC Commission, 23 July 2003) and Bundesliga (EC Commission, 19 January 2005) cases, the Commission considers that (...)

The Court of Cassation dismisses the appeal against the judgment of the Court of Appeal in the case of access to the Laval slaughterhouse Cass. com, 14 March 2006, Privileg, Mayenne Viande, Les Fermiers de l’Erve and STAL, n° 05-13.048 and 05-13.118 On 22 February 2005 the Paris Court of (...)

Const. conc. dec. no. 05-D-62 of November 10, 2005, regarding practices implemented by the Lucie generating station. This decision should put an end to the legal and commercial "war" between Ilec (Institut de liaison et d’études des industries de consommation) and Lucie, the purchasing group (...)

EC Comm., 5 October 2005, SEP a. o. / Automobiles Peugeot S.A., cases COMP/36.623, 36.820 and 37.275 DG Competition regularly publishes statistics highlighting price differences between Member States in the car sector. One of the reasons for these differences, which are sometimes (...)

Competition Council issues an unfavourable opinion on collective bargaining of payment periods Conc. conc. opinion No. 05-A-17 of 22 September 2005 on collective bargaining on inter-company payment periods Following a request from the Ministry of the Economy, the Council shall decide on (...)

The CFI dismisses in its entirety the action brought by the Luxembourg breweries against the decision sanctioning their agreement on mutual respect for distribution networks (CFI, 27 July 2005, Brasserie Nationale SA and Others v Commission, Case T-49/02 to T-51/02) CFI, 27 July 2005, (...)

CFI, 18 July 2005, Scandinavian Airlines System v Commission, Case T-241/01 The role of the in-house lawyer can be difficult and thankless. Without the support of sales teams and management, any attempt to impose a competition compliance policy is likely to be in vain. The SAS/Maersk Air (...)

ECJ, 14 July 2005, ThyssenKrupp Stainless GmbH, "Alloy Surcharge", Joined cases C-65/02 P and C-73/02 P To what extent should the rights of defence of a party that appeared to have waived them in part be protected? In its judgment of 14 July 2005, handed down under the late ECSC Treaty, the (...)

ECJ, 28 June 2005, Dansk Rørindustri a. o. v. Commission, Joined cases C-189/02 P, C-202/02 P, C-205/02 P to C-208/02 P and C-213/02 P The leniency policy pursued by the Commission since its first notice in 1996 has considerably lightened its investigative tasks. Indeed, companies, which (...)

Conc. conc. dec. no. 05-D-10, 15 March 2005 concerning restrictive practices implemented on the cauliflower market in Brittany, France. The agricultural sector remains one of the few markets that is still heavily regulated. It is also the only sector in which the Commission has retained its (...)

Conc. conc. dec. 05-D-07 of 24 February 2005 on practices implemented on the civilian arms and ammunition markets When does a recommended resale price become a contractually imposed resale price? This is the question at the heart of the Browning Sports France case. The contracts concluded (...)

Concordance, Dec. 05-D-03 of February 10, 2005, regarding practices implemented in the bleach sector. Faced with an erosion of market prices, several bleach producers decided in 1998 to meet in order to exchange information on prices and to set a common floor rate for 1999, known as the (...)

CA Paris, 1st ch. H, 11 January 2005, Association Architecture et commande publique and regional council of the Aquitaine order of architects, RG 2004/12 against Dec. No. 04-D-25 Architect’s fees in project management contracts in the Aquitaine region In recent years, the practices of the (...)

EC Commission, 9 December 2004, Choline Chloride, Case COMP/37.533 Recent cartel decisions have several aspects in common. First, most of the facts at issue took place in the 1990s. Secondly, the Commission became aware of these facts through its leniency policy, implemented by its 1996 and (...)

EC Comm, Press Release IP/04/1316, 26 October 2004, Pay Television Film Output Agreements, Case COMP/38.427 Contractual practices in the film sector are characterised by a certain uniformity. The eight major Hollywood studios are used to concluding "output deals", i.e. contracts whereby (...)

EC Comm, 26 October 2004, GDF/ENI, Case COMP/38.662 Since the end of the 1990s, the Commission has opposed the inclusion of territorial restrictions in gas supply contracts between Russian, Nigerian and Algerian suppliers and European gas companies. This is an informal policy leading to the (...)

CFI, 8 July 2004, Mannesmannröhren-Werke AG v. Commission, ’Seamless Steel Tubes’, Case T-44/00 CFI, 8 July 2004, Corus UK Ltd v. Commission, "Seamless Steel Tubes", Case T-48/00 CFI, 8 July 2004, Dalmine SpA v. Commission, "Seamless Steel Tubes", Case T-50/00 CFI, 8 July 2004, JFE Engineering (...)

EC Comm, Guidelines on the application of Article 81(3) of the Treaty, 27 April 2004 In the preparation of the new Regulation 1/2003, the Commission was criticised that the application of Article 81(3) might give rise to enforcement difficulties. In order to respond to this criticism the (...)

EC Comm, Regulation (EC) No 772/2004 of 27 April 2004 on the application of Article 81(3) of the Treaty to categories of technology transfer agreements EC Comm, Guidelines on the application of Article 81 of the EC Treaty to technology transfer agreements, 27 April 2004 Regulations : (...)

EC Comm, 10 December 2003, Organic Peroxide, Case COMP/37.857 Following the accession of the new Member States, the translation services of the Community institutions regularly forfeit, so that official publication in the OJEU is increasingly being replaced by informal publication of basic (...)