As a Counsel in the international Competition & EU Law group here in Helsinki, Täivi advises clients in all areas of competition law as well as public procurement. She has over 15 years of experience in handling complex competition law matters. Advising clients in competition law requires much more than just knowing the relevant provisions, it also requires understanding how the markets operate and what the underlying reasons for regulating how companies can compete, are. Over the years, she has built-up significant experience in a variety of sectors including transport, construction, retail, gambling, agriculture, media and postal services, in addition to which she also has a Master’s degree in Economics of Competition Law. Before joining Bird & Bird, she worked with the Finnish Competition Authority for over ten years, which gives her in-depth understanding of the enforcement priorities of competition authorities as well as their working methods. Due to her background in public administration, she also assists international clients in regulatory reviews across sectors, e.g. in telecommunications, gambling and media markets. Building on her experience, her goal is to give clients tangible advice on competition law, be it from the likelihood for obtaining merger clearance for a given transaction to assessing different distribution strategies from competition law and economics perspectives. She is a member of the Finnish Bar Association, the Finnish Competition Law Association and the Finnish Public Procurement Association. She speaks Finnish, English, French and Swedish.
144
On 24 June 2021, the latest amendments of the Finnish Competition Act entered into force. The modifications were mostly based on the Directive 2019/1 (“ECN+ Directive”), which sought to ensure more effective enforcement of competition law across member states. The amended Competition Act was (...)
181
According to the Finnish Competition and Consumer Authority (“FCCA”), the current national turnover thresholds allow harmful merges to escape scrutiny by the authority. The FCCA suggests that Finnish turnover thresholds be lowered and that the authority be granted the right to require a (...)
180
For the first time in Finnish merger control history, parties to a merger committed to an upfront-buyer provision. On 19 April 2021, the Finnish Competition and Consumer Authority (“FCCA”) approved the merger between Altia Oyj (“Altia”) and Arcus ASA (“Arcus”) subject to conditions. Both Altia and (...)
115
On 3 March 2021, the Market Court agreed with the submission of the Finnish Competition and Consumer Authority ("FCCA"), that three manufacturers of expanded polystyrene (“EPS”), a building insulation material, had engaged in a national price fixing cartel lasting one and a half years. One of (...)
72
On 14 January 2021, the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) issued a preliminary ruling relating to a Finnish bid-rigging case stating that a bid-rigging infringement ends on the day the essential characteristics of the contract, in particular the price, are concluded with the (...)
46
On 15 December 2020, the Market Court agreed with the submission of the Finnish Competition and Consumer Authority ("FCCA"), that the regional association of driving schools in Finland’s most populous region, Uusimaa, ("Association") as well as the Association’s Board members, had breached (...)
48
On 29 September 2020, the Finnish Competition and Consumer Authority ("FCCA") proposed the Market Court to prohibit the merger between Mehiläinen Yhtiöt Oy and Pihlajalinna Oyj. Both companies operate in the healthcare market and provide services to individuals, companies, insurance companies and (...)
108
A selective distribution system consists of a supplier selecting distributors based on specific, pre-determined criteria while committing to sell the products or services in question only to selected distributors. These distributors commit not to sell such products or services to unauthorised (...)
441
According to the decision of the Deputy Chancellor of Justice ("DCJ"), responsible for monitoring the lawfulness of the operations of public authorities, the Finnish Competition and Consumer Authority ("FCCA") cannot restrict the right of attorneys to record the hearings conducted by the FCCA (...)
78
Due to the novel coronavirus the Finnish Competition & Consumer Authority ("FCCA") has published a statement requiring companies to contact the FCCA before filing a new merger control notification and specifically agreeing with the FCCA that a notification may be filed. This requirement is (...)
92
On 17 February 2020, the Market Court prohibited a merger between Finnish grocery wholesalers, Kesko and Heinon Tukku. This was the first time a merger has been prohibited in Finland after merger control rules were introduced in 1998. Previous three prohibition proposals of the Finnish (...)
71
The Finnish gambling market is one of the most regulated in Europe; state-owned Veikkaus Oy has the exclusive right to provide gambling services in Finland. The Lotteries Act (1047/2001) stipulates that the definition of a lottery is fulfilled when an activity includes three elements: a charge (...)
46
On 18 November 2019, the Finnish Competition and Consumer Authority ("FCCA") proposed the Market Court to prohibit the merger between Kesko Oyj and Heinon Tukku Oy, two operators in wholesale services in the foodservice industry. According to the FCCA, the merger would significantly impede (...)
59
The Finnish Competition and Consumer Authority ("FCCA") had, during a dawn raid at a company’s premises, seized a memorandum drafted by this company which, among other things, referred to the legal advice provided to the company by an external attorney. The FCCA argued that as the internal (...)
74
In June 2019, the District Court of Helsinki handed down two judgments regarding compensation of harm resulting from predatory pricing. The claims for damages were brought before the court by two milk producers’ cooperatives, Maitomaa and Maitokolmio, with respect to a predatory pricing case in (...)
22
The Finnish merger control investigation periods have been extended to 23 working days for phase I investigations (instead of one month previously) and 69 working days for phase II investigations (instead of three months previously). The previous way of calculating investigation periods in (...)
29
The key amendments concern inspections carried out by the Finnish Competition and Consumer Authority ("FCCA") and the merger control procedure. The inspection provisions were amended to allow the FCCA to conduct searches within temporary copies of inspection data at its own premises instead of (...)
28
The recent decision of the European Commission (“EC”) regarding Danish Agro’s acquisition of Konekesko’s agrimachinery businesses in Finland, Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania provides for an interesting opportunity to compare the approach of the Finnish Competition and Consumer Authority (“FCCA”) and (...)
24
The Finnish Competition and Consumer Authority ("FCCA") suspects several taxi dispatch centres of illegal restrictions on competition. The Finnish taxi market was deregulated and opened to competition on 1 July 2018. Before the deregulation the Finnish taxi market was divided between local (...)
31
The Finnish Competition and Consumer Authority ("FCCA") has announced that it will carry out an extensive assessment about the effects of the Finnish gambling monopoly. When compared internationally, gambling in Finland is exceptionally common and the Finns are the most avid gamblers in Europe. (...)
31
The Finnish, Swedish, Danish, Norwegian and Icelandic competition authorities have agreed to enhance their co-operation in antitrust investigations by signing a cooperation agreement on 8 September 2017. Currently, Finland, Sweden and Denmark have already acceded to the new agreement by (...)
19 avenue Jean Aicard
75011 Paris, France
106 West 32nd Street, Suite 144
New York, NY, 10001, USA
563 Chiswick High Road
W4 3AY London, UK
