Tony Woodgate is a Partner at Simmons & Simmon in London. Tony has extensive experience of major EU and UK antitrust law investigations, actions before Member State courts and the European Courts in Luxembourg and mergers and acquisitions and joint venture work. Tony advises organisations in areas including pharmaceuticals, media, publishing, energy and commodities together with high technology sectors, including information technology and telecommunications. His particular interests include antitrust litigation, merger control, coordination of multijurisdictional procedures and advising on competition law aspects of standard setting, patent litigation settlements, and licensing issues in the context of assertion of patents and other IPRs.
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Introduction On 27 June 2017, the European Commission (the Commission) imposed a record €2.42bn fine on Google after finding it had abused its dominant position in the search engine market by giving favourable treatment to its comparison shopping service in its search results. Background (...)
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In February 2016, it was reported that the European Commission is undertaking a preliminary antitrust investigation in relation to possible collusion in the money transfer market, continuing the trend of the Commission focussing on the financial sector in recent years. Focus of the (...)
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In brief There were three significant developments in the air cargo cartel damages litigation in the UK in October 2015. First, on 14 October 2015, the English Court of Appeal significantly narrowed the scope of potential claims in the UK by striking out two claims based on the torts of (...)
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On 05 August 2015, the UK Secretary of State issued the Competition Act 1998 (Redress Scheme) Regulations 2015 governing the approval of voluntary redress schemes under the Act. One of the radical elements of the UK’s package of 2015 collective redress measures takes shape as regulations and (...)
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The English High Court has awarded the claimant in an abuse of dominance case an injunction to prevent a service being discontinued - once the claim had been amended over the weekend after an unfinished hearing. In brief Working through the weekend proved worthwhile for Packet Media Limited (...)
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ECJ confirms that Del Monte is liable for a single and continuous infringement of competition law for bilateral information exchanges between its subsidiary Weichert and Dole. On 24 June 2015, the Court of Justice of the European Union (ECJ) dismissed an appeal by Fresh Del Monte Produce Inc. (...)
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In Brief On 30 April 2015, Advocate General (AG) Wathelet gave his Opinion on an appeal brought before the Court of Justice of the European Union (ECJ) by InnoLux Corp. (InnoLux) concerning the European Commission’s liquid crystal display (LCD) panels cartel decision. AG Wathelet agreed with (...)
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In Brief On 23 April 2015, the Court of Justice of the European Union (ECJ) dismissed LG Display’s and LG Display Taiwan Co. Ltd’s appeal against a General Court judgment on their liability for fines arising from the LCD cartel. The case is significant because the ECJ has clarified the approach (...)
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New filing thresholds, guidance on calculating them, a reduction in fees and the introduction of a Notification Form agreed at COMESA summit. In Brief: On 09 April 2015, the COMESA Competition Commission announced that the COMESA Council of Ministers had adopted several amendments to the (...)
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Appeal in banana cartel results in confirmation that the analysis of bilateral information exchange as an object infringement by Commission and General Court was correct. In Brief In its judgment on 19 March 2015, the Court of Justice of the European Union (ECJ) concluded that Dole’s appeal (...)
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On 26 November 2014, the General Court upheld a fine imposed on two Czech companies in the energy sector for obstructing access to electronic documents during a European Commission inspection. The General Court decision is significant because it provides further guidance on the European (...)
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The pitfalls associated with a co cartellist seeking leniency documents submitted in a European Commission case to defend itself in a related national authority case. In brief Henkel, the whistleblower in the European Commission consumer detergent cartel, has failed in its attempt to use the (...)
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On 04 February 2013, the Shenzhen Intermediate People’s Court issued what are believed to be its first rulings on fair, reasonable and non discriminatory (FRAND) licensing under the Chinese Anti Monopoly Law. The rulings are significant as they shows the Chinese Courts’ willingness to apply (...)
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A fundamental restructuring has taken place in the Spanish television market with the recent approval by the National Competition Commission (CNC) of the merger between Telecinco and Cuatro with commitments, followed by its decision a few days later that no merger filing was required on the (...)
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On 28 May 2010, the criminal division of the Court of Appeal handed down an important judgment in which it considered the correct ingredients of the dishonesty element of the cartel offence established by section 188 of the Enterprise Act 2002. The ingredients of dishonesty in the context of (...)
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As reported in our article Italian Torpedo defused? Tactical moves in private actions for damages, a number of claimants are seeking damages - possibly amounting to some tens of millions of pounds - in the Commercial Court of the High Court in a follow on action to the synthetic rubber cartel. (...)
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Akzo was similarly disappointed in its attempts to dissociate the parent company (Akzo Nobel NV) from liability for its subsidiaries’ involvement in the monochloroacetic acid (MCAA) cartel, on which the CFI ruled on 30 September 2009 (Case T 175/05). This was unsurprising, given the ECJ ruling, (...)
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On 10 September 2009, the European Court of Justice (ECJ) in Case C-97/08P found that Akzo Nobel had been correctly identified by the Commission as jointly and severally liable for the actions of certain of its 100 per cent subsidiaries involved in the global and EEA wide cartel concerning (...)
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On 08 August 2009, the US Department of Justice (DOJ) published the indictment filed by a grand jury in the New Jersey District Court against a former Scandinavian Airlines sales director. Jan Lillieborg faces three counts - of conspiracy to restrain trade, conspiracy to obstruct justice, and (...)
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