Victor Ion is an associate at Van Bael & Bellis in Brussels, currently working in competition and international trade. He holds degrees from the University of Oxford and University College London.
128
On 27 September 2023, the General Court handed down its judgment dismissing the action brought by Valve Corporation (“Valve”) against a Commission decision adopted in 2021 finding that Valve’s geo-blocking practices constituted a by-object infringement of Article 101(1) TFEU and imposing a (...)
78
Main take-aways Pierre Cardin and its licensee Ahlers receive statement of objections; Commission recognises its limited ability to tackle unilateral territorial supply constraints; Pending investigation of Mondelēz covers both collusive and unilateral (possible) restraints; Forthcoming Valve (...)
19
On 12 July 2023, the Spanish National Markets and Competition Commission (CNMC) imposed a fine of €50,5 million on Amazon and €143,6 million on Apple for infringing Article 101 TFEU in relation to the distribution of Apple products over Amazon Marketplace in Spain. The CNMC has since published (...)
113
On 29 June 2023, the ECJ handed down a preliminary ruling on various questions referred to it by a Portuguese court in the context of an appeal against an infringement decision of the Portuguese Competition Authority finding that a beverage supplier had engaged in resale price maintenance (...)
104
On 20 April 2023, the Court of Justice of the European Union (“ECJ”) handed down a preliminary ruling concerning the effect of national competition authorities’ (“NCAs”) final infringement decisions on follow-on actions for damages and for declarations of nullity, where the actions in question (...)
56
On 17 April 2022, the European Commission (“Commission”) adopted a Regulation extending the validity of the 2010 Motor Vehicle Block Exemption Regulation (Regulation (EU) No 461/2010 (“MVBER”) until 31 May 2028. The Commission also adopted only modest amendments to the 2010 Supplementary (...)
494
On 6 October 2022, the Court of Appeal of Paris (“the Court”) granted a partial reformation of the decision of the French Competition Authority (“FCA”) of 16 March 2020 concerning practices related to the distribution of certain Apple products (the “FCA Decision”) and reduced by twothirds the (...)
363
On 27 September 2022, the Romanian competition authority announced the start of a sectoral inquiry into the retail market for pharmaceutical products. The authority perceives a risk of diminished access to medicines at retail level, caused by inadequate levels of supply to pharmacies. As (...)
90
On 6 July 2022, the European Commission (“Commission”) published (i) a draft Regulation extending the validity of the Motor Vehicle Block Exemption Regulation (Regulation (EU) No 461/2010) (“MVBER”) by five years and (ii) a draft Communication which would modestly amend the Supplementary (...)
97
On 30 March 2022, the General Court of the European Union (“General Court”) handed down thirteen separate judgments on appeals brought by airfreight carriers against the Commission’s re-adopted decision in the Airfreight case. Background In November 2010, the European Commission (...)
749
On 11 February 2022, the UK’s Competition and Markets Authority (“CMA”) issued its decision to accept the commitments offered by Google in relation to its Privacy Sandbox proposals (“the Decision”). The Decision is noteworthy in several respects. First, it highlights the complicated tradeoffs (...)
255
Gazprom: General Court confirms Commission’s commitment decision but annuls a decision based on similar grounds to reject a complaint against Gazprom On 2 February 2022, the General Court of the European Union (the “Court”) issued two judgments which follow the European Commission’s (the (...)
