Sean Gerlich

On 7 December 2010, European Court of Justice (“ECJ”) Advocate General (“AG”) Jan Mazák published his opinion in Tele 2 Polska, advising the Court to rule that national competition authorities (“NCAs”) should not be entitled to declare certain practices compatible with Articles 101 or 102 of the (...)

On 29 September 2010, the Commission announced that it had adopted a decision under Article 9 of Regulation 1/2003 to accept commitments from ENI concerning Italy’s natural gas market. Notably, the commitments were of a structural nature, in that ENI proposed to divest its shares in three (...)

On 29 September 2010, the German Federal Cartel Office (“FCO”) announced that an investigation into twenty-four electric heating operators suspected of abusing their respective dominant positions was closed after the FCO accepted commitments to resolve the competition concerns. The (...)

On 2 September 2010, Ján Mázak, an Advocate General (“AG”) at the European Court of Justice (“ECJ”), published his opinion in a case considering whether TeliaSonera, the Swedish telecom incumbent, abused its dominant position as the owner of the country’s telephony infrastructure by engaging in a (...)

On 21 July 2010, the French Competition Authority published commitments offered by Google in an effort to resolve competition concerns identified by the Competition Authority in a decision of 30 June 2010. The 30 June decision granted interim measures to Navx, a company which sells online (...)

On 25 June 2010, the General Court handed down its judgment in the long-running procedure concerning an alleged abuse of a dominant position by Imperial Chemical Industries Limited (“ICI”) on the market for soda ash. In its judgment, the General Court largely upheld the Commission’s findings, but (...)

On 4 May 2010, the Commission announced that it had adopted a decision under Article 9 of Regulation 1/2003 to accept commitments from E.ON concerning the German gas market. This follows a market testing of the commitments in January 2010. According to the Commission’s press release, interested (...)

The details of two appeals lodged at the General Court (“GC”) by Hynix Semiconductor (“Hynix”) against two Commission decisions concerning US chip manufacturer Rambus were published in the Official Journal of 5 June 2010. In December 2009, the Commission issued a decision closing an investigation (...)

On 1 March 2010, the Commission announced that it had sent a Statement of Objections to incumbent Polish telecoms operator Telekomunikacja Polska (“TP”) for allegedly abusing its dominant position in the Polish wholesale broadband services market by engaging in a refusal to supply. In (...)

In a decision dated 11 February 2010, the Basque Competition Authority imposed a fine of approximately € 3.4 million on Telefónica for discriminatory practices in breach of the Spanish provision equivalent to Article 102 TFEU. The Basque Competition Authority considered that Telefónica held a (...)

On 4 February 2010, the Commission announced that the Italian energy company ENI had proposed structural remedies to address the Commission’s concerns that the management and operation of natural gas transmission pipelines by ENI could infringe Article 102 TFEU, and stated its intention to (...)

According to a press release of 28 January 2010, the German Federal Cartel Office (“FCO”) has required Scandlines Deutschland GmbH (“Scandlines”), the owner of the Puttgarden ferry port and sole provider of ferry services between Puttgarden in Germany and Rødby in Denmark, to provide other ferry (...)

On 22 January 2010, the Commission published in the Official Journal a series of commitments offered by E.ON to address concerns raised by the Commission with respect to the German gas markets. According to the Commission’s preliminary assessment, E.ON may have infringed Article 102 TFEU by (...)

The Italian Competition Authority (“ICA”) has recently terminated an antitrust investigation into Google after accepting and making binding commitments offered by Google to resolve two concerns raised during the ICA’s investigation. The ICA’s investigation started in August 2009, when Google was (...)

In a recently published decision of 14 January 2010, the French Competition Authority dismissed the allegation of the French Minister for the Economy against Sanofi-Aventis (“Sanofi”) concerning that firm’s pricing practices on the market for the supply of low-molecular-weight heparins (“LMWHs”) (...)

In a published decision of 12 January 2010, the Cypriot Commission for the Protection of Competition (“CPC”) concluded that the Cyprus Telecommunications Authority (“CYTA”) abused its dominant position in the premium SMS (short messaging services of added value) market in breach of the applicable (...)

On 24 November 2009, the Commission announced its decision to close its proceedings against Qualcomm Incorporated concerning an alleged breach of Article 82 EC. The investigation was opened on 1st October 2007. Although the Commission noted that the Qualcomm case raised important issues about (...)

On 19 November 2009, the Commission announced that on 16 November 2009 it had sent a Statement of Objections to Standard & Poor’s (“S&P”) for an alleged violation of Article 82 EC. According to the Commission’s press release, S&P is the sole-appointed National Numbering Agency (“NNA”) (...)

On 10 November 2009, the Commission announced that it was opening formal antitrust proceedings against Thomson Reuters regarding its practices in the area of real-time market datafeeds. In particular, the Commission will investigate whether customers or competitors are prevented from (...)

On 4 November 2009, the Commission announced that it was launching a market test of commitments offered by French energy company EDF to address allegedly abusive long-term contracts entered into by EDF. The move follows the sending of a Statement of Objections to EDF in December 2008. The (...)

In its judgment of 14 October 2009, the Higher Regional Court of Düsseldorf (“Court”) held that additional fees charged by the dominant German railway network provider (“defendant”) to a company active in the field of railway freight transportation (“claimant”) for the ad hoc use of the railway (...)

On 7 October 2009, the Commission announced that it was beginning a market test of commitments offered by Microsoft to address allegations that it tied its web browser Internet Explorer with its client PC operating system. The move follows the publication of a Statement of Objections earlier (...)

On 6 October 2009, the Commission announced that it was beginning a market test of commitments offered by Svenska Kraftnät (SvK), the Swedish transmission system operator, to address various allegations of abuse. The move follows an announcement by the Commission earlier this year that it had (...)

In a published judgment of 30 September 2009, the Higher Regional Court of Düsseldorf (“Court”) upheld the decision of the Regional Court of Düsseldorf according to which a consolidator was entitled to obtain damages from Deutsche Post AG (“DPAG”) for lost profits. The consolidator was a competitor (...)

On 17 September 2009, Advocate General Kokott issued her Opinion in Commission v. Alrosa, which concerns the Commission’s appeal of a CFI judgment that annulled a decision to accept commitments proposed by De Beers under Article 9 of Regulation 1/2003. In her Opinion, Advocate General Kokott (...)

On 16 September 2009, the French Competition Authority found that the difference between intra-network and inter-network tariffs charged by mobile operator SRR, a subsidiary of French mobile operator SFR, were prima faciecontrary to Article 82 EC and the equivalent French provision and created (...)

On 8 September 2009, the Slovak competition authority imposed a fine of about € 18,000 on ENVI-PAK for abuse of its dominant position by applying discriminatory prices in licensing the “Green Dot” trademark. Manufacturers pay to place the Green Dot trademark on packaging in order to signal that (...)

In a decision made available this month, the German Federal Cartel Office (“FCO”) declined to charge Deutsche Telekom AG (“DTAG”) for allegedly abusing its dominant position with respect to telecommunication services necessary to provide premium rate services, rejecting a complaint by competitor (...)

In a decision of 31 July 2009, which was made public on 7 September 2009, the French Competition Authority rejected German generic pharmaceutical company Ratiopharm‘s request for interim measures against Janssen-Cilag France (“Janssen”), the maker of Durogesic. The move follows a complaint lodged (...)

On 23 July 2009, the Spanish Competition Authority fined AIE, the Spanish collecting society for music artists, for abusive practices in the period since 1995, in breach of Article 82 EC and the equivalent Spanish provision. The decision followed from a complaint by Telecinco, a Spanish (...)

On 16 July 2009, the European Court of Justice (ECJ) issued its judgment in the appeal of Duales System Deutschland (DSD) against a 2007 judgment of the Court of First Instance (CFI), which had upheld a Commission decision finding that the German recycling company’s licensing scheme for its (...)

In a decision adopted on 24 June 2009, the Danish Competition Council (DCC) found that the Danish post operator Post Danmark had abused its dominant position on the market for direct mailing (“direct mailing” refers to the sending by the same party of a large batch of letters to a group of (...)

On 19 May 2009, the Spanish Competition Authority adopted a decision against Abertis for concluding contracts of excessive duration and offering bundled rebates contrary to Article 82 EC and the Spanish equivalent provision. Abertis is a group of undertakings active in the management of various (...)

On 21 September 2009, the Commission published the non-confidential version of the Intel decision of 13 May 2009, and a summary of the decision was also published in the Official Journal of 22 September 2009. The materials confirm that the Commission has challenged two specific practices: (i) (...)

On 27 April 2009, the Commission issued a press release announcing that it had opened formal proceedings against Telekomunikacja Polska and Slovak Telekom for possible breaches of Article 82 EC. In particular, the Commission announced that it is investigating Slovak Telekom, the Slovak telecoms (...)

On 23 April 2009, the Commission issued a press release announcing that it had opened formal proceedings against Svenska Kraftnät (“SvK”), the Swedish electricity transmission system operator, for possible breaches of Article 82 EC. SvK is a State-owned central administrative authority in Sweden (...)

On 8 April 2009, the French Competition Authority decided to reject commitments offered by the EDF group («EDF«) – the French electricity incumbent – with respect to the emerging market for photovoltaic electricity (the «photovoltaic market«) and instead to impose interim measures and continue its (...)

On 2 April 2009, the French Competition Authority dismissed SFR‘s application for interim measures against Orange concerning the latter’s bundled offer of its broadband and «Unik« mobile telephony services. Orange‘s «Unik« package is characterised by the convergence between fixed and mobile telephony: (...)

On 31 March 2009, Advocate General Bot delivered his opinion in the appeal of Duales System Deutschland (“DSD”) against a 2007 CFI judgment holding that the German recycling company’s licensing scheme for its “Green Dot” logo constituted an abuse of a dominant position. The Advocate General (...)

In a recently published decision of 27 March 2009, the Slovakian Competition Authority (“CA”) upheld a first instance decision of 28 October 2008 imposing a fine of approximately € 2.4 million on Slovak Telecom (“ST”), the incumbent provider of telecom services in Slovakia. The investigation dates (...)

On 25 March 2009, the French Competition Authority imposed a €320,000 fine on Gaz et Electricité de Grenoble (GEG) for abusing its dominant position on the market for electricity supply to small professionals in the service area of Grenoble by publicly denigrating its competitor, Poweo, in (...)

On 6 March 2009, the Commission sent a Statement of Objections to the Italian ENI group, setting out its preliminary view that the management and operation of natural gas pipelines by ENI may constitute one or more abuses. In particular, the Commission alleges that ENI, the largest producer, (...)

According to a press release of 6 March 2009, the Austrian Higher Cartel Court has referred a case involving an allegation of margin squeeze by Telekom Austria TA AG back to the Austrian Cartel Court. The case concerns Telekom Austria‘s “KombiP2007” package offer of bundled internet, mobile and (...)

On 4 March 2009, the Commission announced that it had adopted a Decision removing the Trustee provisions from the 2004 Microsoft Decision and repealed the subsequent 2005 Trustee Decision which was adopted on the basis of the 2004 Decision. According to the Commission, it found that the Trustee (...)

On 3 March 2009, the Spanish Competition Authority adopted a decision finding that EFEMSA, a public undertaking charged with the provision of funeral services in Majorca, engaged in exclusionary practices contrary to the Spanish provision equivalent to Article 82 EC. EFEMSA is controlled by the (...)

According to a press release, the German Federal Court of Justice, in its decision dated 3 March 2009, upheld a decision of the Higher Regional Court of Düsseldorf, finding that Deutsche Lufthansa AG had abused its dominant position by refusing to supply the authorisations required to allow (...)

On 16 February 2009, the French Competition Council accepted commitments from several operators of motorway concessions in France (hereinafter referred to as the “motorway network operators”) to resolve concerns that each may have abused their respective dominant positions as regards the granting (...)

The Commission has issued a press release confirming that it has sent a new Statement of Objections to Microsoft on 15th January 2009 which takes the preliminary view that Microsoft has tied its web browser Internet Explorer to Windows in violation of Article 82 EC. According to the (...)

On 12 January 2009, the Commission announced that it has opened formal proceedings into Standard & Poor’s (“S&P”) licensing conditions regarding International Securities Identification Numbers (“ISINs”). ISINs are unique identifiers for securities issued throughout the world, and S&P is (...)

On 7 January 2009, the French Competition Authority released a market test notice concerning certain commitments offered “by” the French electricity incumbent, the EDF group (“EDF”). EDF is the largest supplier of electricity in France and one of the largest players in the European electricity (...)

On 29 December 2008, the Commission confirmed that it has sent a Statement of Objections to EDF, the largest supplier of electricity in France. The Statement of Objections concerns various long-term contracts entered into between EDF and industrial customers in France, the existence of which (...)

On 11 December 2008, the ECJ handed down a judgment in which it responded to four questions referred to it by the Swedish Market Court. The questions arose in a dispute between the Swedish copyright collecting society STIM and two commercial TV channels, TV 4 and Kanal 5 (the “TV channels”). The (...)

On 9 December 2008, the Spanish Competition Authority adopted a decision fining the two Spanish collecting societies in the music industry, AGEDI (representing music producers) and AIE (representing artists), for discriminatory pricing in breach of Article 82 EC and the equivalent provision of (...)

By decision of 12 November 2008, the Budapest Court of Appeal confirmed that the Hungarian Competition Authority (GVH) erred by finding that communications company Invitel abused its dominant position in a 2006 decision. The GVH’s decision found that Invitel was abusing its position by (...)

On 3 November 2008, the Slovak Antimonopoly Office (the “Antimonopoly Office”) imposed a fine of 73 million SKK (approximately € 2.4 million) on Slovak Telekom, the dominant telecommunications network owner and operator, for margin squeezing. Slovak Telekom operates the telecommunications network (...)

On 10 October 2008, the Council of the Slovak Antimonopoly Office imposed a fine of 98.9 million SKK (approximately € 3.3 million) on eustream for an abuse of its dominant position. The company is the operator of the only gas transport network in Slovakia and is a member of the SPP group (a (...)

According to a press release of 6 October 2008, the German Federal Cartel Office (FCO) closed its proceedings against six regional gas suppliers belonging to the E.ON group in exchange for a commitment according to which the companies agree not to increase prices for two months and to pay a (...)

In a speech on 25 September 2008, Commissioner Kroes provided an update on the status of the Article 82 Guidelines with respect to exclusionary abuses. In this regard, Commissioner Kroes noted that a new draft document was created and circulated to the Member States, and earlier in September (...)

On 25 September 2008, Advocate General Mazák issued his opinion in France Télécom‘s appeal of the judgment of the Court of First Instance (CFI). This judgment upheld a Commission decision which concluded that France Télécom had abused its dominant position on the French market for high-speed Internet (...)

On 16 September 2008, the European Court of Justice (“ECJ”) handed down its judgment in Joined Cases C-468-478/06, answering the questions posed by the Athens Court of Appeals in proceedings against a decision finding that Glaxo Smith Kline (“GSK”) had not abused its dominant position by limiting (...)

On 11 September 2008, Advocate General Trstenjak delivered her opinion on four questions referred to the ECJ by the Swedish Market Court. The questions arose in a dispute between two commercial TV channels, TV 4 and Kanal 5 (the “TV channels”) and the Swedish copyright collecting society Stim. (...)

On 8 August 2008, the Hungarian Competition Authority (the "GVH") decided to accept commitments from OFFI, Hungary’s National Office for Translation and Attestation, in a case it initiated ex officio. OFFI, a limited liability company 100% owned by the Hungarian state, is by law granted the (...)

On 31 July 2008, the Commission announced that it was welcoming changes made by EDF, a supplier of electricity in France, to its contractual framework with Exeltium, a consortium of large industrial electricity consumers in France. According to the Commission’s press statement, EDF has made (...)

On 17 July 2008, the Commission confirmed that it sent a supplementary Statement of Objections to Intel. This supplementary SO is said to reinforce the initial SO and also identify the Commission’s preliminary conclusion that Intel has engaged in three additional elements of abusive conduct. (...)

On 1 July 2008, the Court of First Instance (“CFI”) issued its judgment on Compagnie Maritime Belge’s appeal of the Commission decision of 30 April 2004 (the “Decision”), which had fined it € 3.4 million for the infringements of Article 82 EC established in the Commission original decision of 23 (...)

On 1 July 2008, the European Court of Justice issued a preliminary ruling in a case involving a challenge to the activities of ELPA, which has responsibility for organising motorcycle events in Greece and also in entering into sponsorship, advertising and insurance contracts. The Court of (...)

On 12 June 2008, the Commission adopted a press release announcing the beginning of market-testing for commitments offered by E.ON to resolve two outstanding investigations under Article 82 EC. The Commission previously welcomed the submission of such proposals on 28 February 2008. In the (...)

On 22 May 2008, the Commission initiated proceedings against Gaz de France for possible infringement of Articles 81 and 82 EC. According to the Commission’s statement, its investigation concerns the possible foreclosure of downstream supply markets for natural gas in France through long-term (...)

Details of Deutsche Telekom’s appeal against the Court of First Instance’s judgment of 10 April 2008 have been published. According to the summary of the appeal, Deutsche Telekom is arguing, inter alia, that the Court of First Instance infringed Article 82 EC and the principle of legitimate (...)

On 10 April 2008, the Court of First Instance (“CFI”) issued its judgment on Deutsche Telekom‘s appeal of the Commission Decision of 23 May 2003 (the “Decision”) which had fined it € 12.6 million for engaging in a margin squeeze. The CFI upheld the Decision in virtually all respects. In the (...)

In a recently published decision of 8 April 2008, the Austrian Supreme Court assessed whether a newspaper undertaking involved in distribution abused its dominant position by offering a motorway permit sticker for free with new subscriptions. The undertaking, dominant on the Austrian market for (...)

On 3 April 2008, the Austrian Cartel Court accepted the commitments of OMV AG (“OMV”) aimed at remedying concerns that OMV had abused its dominant position on the market for the provision of jet fuel and fuel transport infrastructure at the Vienna airport. As a result, OMV has agreed to give (...)

On 1 April 2008, Advocate General Colomer gave his opinion in Joined Cases C-468/06 to C-478/06 Sot. Lélos Kai Sia EE (and Others) v GlaxoSmithKline AEVE.The case relates to a long series of disputes in Greece where GlaxoSmithKline has been accused of abusing its dominant position by reducing (...)

On 31 March 2008, the Spanish Competition Authority adopted a decision finding that Estación Sur de Atobuses de Madrid SA (“Estación Sur”) had abused its dominant position in breach of the Spanish provision equivalent to Article 82 EC. In this regard, the Spanish Competition Authority concluded (...)

On 13 March 2008, the Spanish Competition Authority found that Empresa Pública de Puertos de Andalucía (“Puertos de Andalucía”), a public undertaking which runs marinas in the South of Spain, had not abused its dominant position by engaging in predatory pricing. Although the decision found that (...)

On 3 March 2008, the Danish Competition Appeal Tribunal concluded that the Danish electricity production company Elsam A/S (“Elsam”) had abused its dominant position on the market for the wholesale of physical electricity in Western Denmark during the period of 1 January 2005 to 30 June 2006 by (...)

On 28 February 2008, the Commission adopted a press release welcoming proposals submitted by E.ON under Article 9 of Regulation 1/2003 to address two on-going investigations relating to competition in the German electricity market. As announced in the Commission’s press release, E.ON has (...)

On 27 February 2008, the Commission announced that it had imposed a penalty payment of € 899 million on Microsoft for its alleged failure to comply with obligations contained in the Commission’s March 2004 decision. In particular, the Commission stated that Microsoft had charged unreasonable (...)

On 25 February 2008, the UK energy regulator Ofgem fined National Grid £ 41.6 million (approximately € 51.4 million) for abusing its dominant position in the UK market for domestic gas metering in violation of Article 82 EC and the Chapter II prohibition of the UK Competition Act. Under the Act, (...)

The European Commission announced that it sent a Statement of Objections to Alcan on 21st February 2008. The SO alleges that Alcan may have infringed Article 82 EC by tying its dominant aluminium smelting technology with handling equipment sold by Alcan’s subsidiary ECL. In particular, the SO (...)

On 12 February 2008, the Spanish Competition Authority fined a supplier of explosives for excessive pricing in the Canary Islands in breach of the Spanish equivalent to Article 82 EC. The Spanish Competition Authority concluded that Canarias de Explosivos S.A. held a dominant position on the (...)

The Dutch Competition Authority (“NMa”) published guidelines on the handling of digital files during an investigation (the “Guidelines”). The Guidelines replace the former guidelines which had been in force since 2003. Under the new Guidelines, the NMa is allowed to copy digital information stored (...)

In a recently published judgment of 23 January 2008, the Lazio Administrative Tribunal (“LAT”) has rejected the appeals brought by Telecom Italia and Wind against the decision of the Italian Competition Authority (“ICA”) finding that Telecom and Wind had abused their respective dominant positions (...)

On 27 December 2007, the Slovak Antimonopoly Office imposed a fine of 525.8 million SKK (approximately € 15.5 million) on Slovak Telekom for abusing its dominant position in the telecommunication market under both Slovak and EC competition law by charging its competitors unfair interconnecting (...)

In its recently published decision dated 5 December 2007, the Higher Regional Court of Düsseldorf held that a leading undertaking in the travel services market had abused its dominant position by refusing to supply to a travel lodge card supplier authorisations to issue VAT information on the (...)

On 16 July 2007, the Czech Competition Authority announced that it had imposed a fine on České dráhy, a.s. (“Czech Railways”) for abusing its dominant position on the market for rail freight transport of large volume substrates. The fine amounts to CZK 270 million (approximately € 11 million). The (...)