April 2017

The Agency for Protection of Competition of Montenegro (“Agency“) has just published its 2016 Report, providing us with a detailed account of its activities in the previous year. The report is especially interesting for its pronounced criticism of the current competition law enforcement system (...)

The Italian Competition Authority (ICA) has recently closed an Article 101 TFEU investigation it had opened in the case ABI/SEDA by an infringement decision. The ICA found the parties to have put in place an anti-competitive agreement in the banking sector. Though the agreement was qualified (...)

No Bid-Rigging in Swedish Healthcare Case* At the end of April this year, a Swedish case involving alleged procurement collusion in healthcare markets reached its final conclusion. In a reversal of fortunes for the Swedish Competition Authority (SCA), the Patent and Market Court of Appeal (...)

On 27 April 2017, the Court of Justice of the European Union (“ECJ”) dismissed an appeal lodged by banana importer Pacific Fruit (and its parent companies) against a judgment of the General Court (“GC”), which upheld the European Commission’s decision finding that Pacific Fruit had (...)

The European Court of Justice ("CoJ") has upheld the European Commission’s use of evidence transmitted by a national authority other than a Member State competition authority in a cartel investigation. The CoJ ruled on April 27, 2017, that the national authority properly transmitted such (...)

FAS terminated administrative proceedings against Google* The decisions was due to an amicable settlement reached between the antimonopoly authority and the company On 25 April 2017, the Federal Antimonopoly Service (FAS Russia) terminated the proceedings against Google opened for failure (...)

The NDRC, its local Guangdong bureau, and the SAIC recently investigated separate administrative monopoly cases involving drug procurement for public hospitals. Previously, the NDRC and its local offices had investigated drug procurement practices by local health and family planning (...)

On April 11th, the NMCC has condemned the Spanish Basketball Clubs Association (Asociación de Clubes de Baloncesto or ACB) for breaching the national provision on restrictive practices, Article 1 Competition Act. The ACB has been fined €400,000. According to the NMCC, the ACB forced (...)

On 10 April 2017, the European Commission published its roadmap on “Standard Essential Patents for a European digitalised economy” (the “Roadmap”) with the aim of supporting the development of the 5G mobile communications standard (“5G”) and the Internet of Things (“IoT”) universe. A (...)

On 29 April 2017, the MOFCOM approved the merger between Dow and DuPont, subject to structural and behavioural conditions. The merger notification was submitted on 21 March 2016, which was accepted as complete on 6 May 2016. The review went into an extended phase 2, and the parties withdrew (...)

The FTC’s recent consent agreement addressing concerns regarding Emerson Electric Co.’s (Emerson) acquisition of Pentair Plc (Pentair) demonstrates a continued focus on whether transactions will reduce the incentive for merging parties to develop new, innovative products in the future. This is (...)

RESTAURANT SECTOR* As part of group Flo’s takeover by group Bertrand, the Autorité de la concurrence considered the case under merger control. The Autorité has authorized the transaction for which the agreement protocols have to be approved by Nanterre’s commercial court. Group Bertrand (...)

MERGERS: COMMISSION CLEARS ACQUISITION OF SMART CARD MAKER MORPHO BY ADVENT INTERNATIONAL, SUBJECT TO CONDITIONS* The European Commission has cleared under the EU Merger Regulation the proposed acquisition of identity and security solutions provider Morpho, based in France, by Advent (...)

Article published on StateAidHub: http://stateaidhub.eu, republished in e-Competitions with the courtesy of the author. The original title of this article appears below the e-Competitions title. Authors are welcome to write an alternative article on this case/text, provided they have no (...)

1. Introduction As of April 14, 2017, companies can apply for State aid for investments in highly efficient cogeneration and investments in the promotion of energy production derived from less exploited renewable energy sources (biomass, biogas and geothermal energy). Both schemes are (...)

Calculating the Amount of State Aid in a 100% Public Guarantee* The proxy rates in the Commission Notice on Guarantees cannot be used in cases of state guarantees that cover 100% of the underlying loans. Introduction Last week’s article reviewed the terms of the operation of regional (...)

* Article published on StateAidHub (click here). The original title of this article appears below the e-Competitions title. Authors are welcome to write an alternative article on this case/text, provided they have no relationships with a party or related third party. Article will need (...)

This article has been nominated for the 2018 Antitrust Writing Awards. Click here to learn more about the Antitrust Writing Awards. Hong Kong Court confirms bar on stand-alone private actions in competition cases* The Hong Kong Court of First Instance rejected a claim that it had (...)

On 27 April 2017, Hong Kong’s High Court rejected allegations by travel agency, Loyal Profit International Development that certain directives issued by the Travel Industry Council (TIC) were anti-competitive, and refused to rule on alleged violations of competition law. Loyal Profit alleged (...)

Let me get this straight from the beginning. I am not a big fan of the trend among the competition authorities to introduce whistleblowing programs. For me this seems to be rather a sign of weakness and not of strength. If other available tools (and especially the leniency program) worked well (...)

The European Commission publishes the results of an exercise, carried out by the Autorité de la concurrence and 9 other national European competition authorities, which assess the effects of the remedies adopted in Europe in the online hotel booking sector.* Background Following the (...)