Maurits Dolmans

The European Commission (“EC”), on July 9, 2021 [1], published its long-anticipated proposed update of the Vertical Block Exemption Regulation [2] (“VBER”) and the corresponding draft Vertical Restraints Guidelines (“Vertical Guidelines”) [3] for public consultation and comment by September (...)

On January 28, 2021, the Rotterdam District Court handed down judgment in an appeal brought by Royal Dutch Shell (Shell) against an October 2019 magistrate ruling regarding the scope of legal professional privilege (LPP) over legal advice given by Shell’s in-house lawyers. The judgment is a (...)

On December 9, 2020, the Court of Justice of the European Union granted Canal+’s application to annul the European Commission’s decision under Article 9 of Regulation No. 1/2003 to adopt commitments offered by Paramount (the “Commitments Decision”). The commitments prohibited Paramount from (...)

On November 11, the UK Government proposed a new national security screening regime that would allow the Government to intervene in “potentially hostile” foreign investments that threatened UK national security while “ensuring the UK remains a global champion of free trade and an attractive (...)

On October 13, 2020, the European Commission published a call for contributions to determine if and how EU competition policy can better support the European Green Deal. The European Green Deal is a comprehensive action plan aimed at making Europe the world’s first climate neutral continent (...)

In September 2020, Competition Commissioner Margrethe Vestager announced that from mid-2021 the European Commission (“EC”) would “start accepting referrals from national competition authorities of mergers that are worth reviewing at the EU level – whether or not those authorities had the power (...)

On 5 September 2020, the UK Government accepted undertakings from Gardner Aerospace Holdings Limited not to proceed with its proposed acquisition of Impcross Limited, a UK-based manufacturer of components for the aerospace industry (including for military aircraft). Gardner is owned by (...)

On 26 August 2020, the UK Supreme Court issued its judgment in a standard-essential patent (SEP) dispute between Huawei and Unwired Planet (see full alert memorandum). Unwired Planet is a patent assertion entity that acquires and licenses patents. In 2013, it acquired telecoms patents from (...)

This article has been nominated for the 2021 Antitrust Writing Awards. Click here to learn more about the Antitrust Writing Awards. On 26 August, 2020, the UK Supreme Court decided a standard-essential patent (SEP) dispute between Huawei and Unwired Planet. [1] The Supreme Court held that (...)

On August 11, 2020, a Ninth Circuit panel reversed the District Court for the Northern District of California’s judgment in FTC v. Qualcomm, Inc. The panel held that Qualcomm’s conduct—(a) refusing to license its standards essential patents (SEPs) to rival chipset manufacturers; (b) refusing (...)

The CMA’s Guidance on applications for leniency and no-action in cartel cases provides detailed guidance on the principles and process for leniency applications. On 30 July 2020, the CMA invited comments on a proposed addendum to clarify the way the CMA will exercise its discretion in relation (...)

On 22 June 2020, the UK Government introduced new measures allowing it to intervene in merger transactions “to maintain in the United Kingdom the capability to combat, and to mitigate the effects of, public health emergencies." The Government will be able to intervene on these grounds in any (...)

The COVID-19 pandemic has led to extreme demand and price volatility for certain products, as well as fluctuations in firms’ costs. As firms struggle to manage these changes, agencies are aggressively seeking to show they are preventing consumer exploitation—for example, as a result of (...)

On 1 April 2020, the CAT published a summary of an application to commence collective proceedings under section 47B of the Competition Act 1998. The application was filed by Mark McLaren Class Representative Limited, a special purpose vehicle, alleging losses arising from the European (...)

The UK Government, the Competition and Markets Authority (“CMA”) and sectoral regulators are taking measures to respond to COVID-19, including suspending certain elements of competition law to allow competing suppliers of essential products and services to work together, while monitoring (...)

This article has been nominated for the 2020 Antitrust Writing Awards. Click here to learn more about the Antitrust Writing Awards. On 18 July 2019, the European Commission (“EC”) fined Qualcomm for abusing its market dominance by selling 3G baseband chipsets below cost, to force its (...)

UK Clamps Down On Gun-Jumping On 12 February 2019, the UK Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) imposed a fine of £200,000 on Electro Rent for gun-jumping. [1] This is the third occasion on which the CMA has penalised a company for breaching “standstill” or “hold-separate” obligations (...)

In 2015, the EU Interchange Fee Regulation (the “IFR”) introduced price caps on the interchange fees paid between banks for processing credit and debit card payments. These fee caps attempt to address concerns identified in a series of antitrust investigations into Visa and Mastercard through (...)

This article has been nominated for the 2019 Antitrust Writing Awards. Click here to learn more about the Antitrust Writing Awards. On December 21, 2017, the District Court for the Central District of California issued TCL v. Ericsson, resolving a long-standing dispute between the parties (...)

On October 17, 2017, the UK Government published legislative proposals that would give it greater powers to intervene in mergers that raise national security considerations or involve national infrastructure. In the short-term, any transaction involving a party active in the manufacture or (...)

(“CJEU”) set aside General Court’s 2014 Intel judgment, upholding a European Commission (the “Commission”) decision fining Intel €1.06 billion for abuse of dominance through exclusivity rebates . The CJEU held that the General Court had erred in failing to examine all of Intel’s arguments (...)

On May 18, 2017, the European Commission (the “Commission”) fined Facebook €110 million for providing incorrect or misleading information during its 2014 investigation of its acquisition of WhatsApp The magnitude of the fine dwarfs the few penalties the Commission has imposed in the past for (...)

In September 2016, the Competition and Markets Authority (“CMA”) launched a Market Study into digital comparison tools (“DCTs”). On March 28, 2017, the CMA published an update on the Market Study setting out its preliminary findings and areas of focus for the second part of the Market Study. (...)

The Damages Directive seeks to promote private enforcement of EU competition law before national courts across the European Union (the “EU”). The UK Regulations implementing the Directive were laid before Parliament on 20 December 2016 but will not come into force until after they have (...)

This article has been nominated for the 2016 Antitrust Writing Awards. Click here to learn more about the Antitrust Writing Awards. On March 2, 2015, China’s National Development and Reform Commission (“NDRC”), the agency responsible for investigating price-related violations of China’s (...)

This article has been nominated for the 2016 Antitrust Writing Awards. Click here to learn more about the Antitrust Writing Awards. I. Introduction This e-Competitions Special Issue collects articles on competition law developments relating to the Internet at national and EU levels, as (...)

I. Introduction The last decade has seen Internet-based “disruptive innovation” in many sectors of the economy, not least communications, media, advertising and retail. This unprecedented development has brought about changes that would have been unimaginable until very recently: Websites, (...)

This article has been nominated for the 2012 Antitrust Writing Awards. Click here to learn more about the Antitrust Writing Awards. On January 14, 2011, the European Commission (the “Commission”) published new Guidelines on the Applicability of Article 101 TFEU to Horizontal Co-operation (...)