August 2017

The Federal Court has found against the ACCC in considering changes to Medibank’s coverage for certain out-of-pocket expenses and related representations made in various Medibank documents. In rejecting the ACCC’s contentions, the Court undertook a detailed and careful analysis of Medibank’s (...)

A Danish media agency, Mediacenter Danmark A/S (‘Mediacenter’) entered into a customer sharing agreement from November 2013 to December 2014 with their competitor MPE Distribution (‘MPC’) in the market for distribution of unaddressed mail. MPC decided to notify the Danish Competition and (...)

The two current commissioners of the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) approved another final order and consent agreement with a trade association, this time with the National Association of Animal Breeders, Inc. (NAAB). What happened: NAAB is a non-profit corporation of approximately 24 (...)

On 24 August 2017 the Competition Council (CC) discovered the price-fixing cartel in the form of bid rigging at public tender for acquisition of road construction and repairs works announced by the state-owned enterprise. The fines imposed on undertakings involved were calculated taking into (...)

No dominant market power among online video streaming platforms* The Netherlands Authority for Consumers and Markets (ACM) has conducted a market study into online video platforms such as YouTube, Facebook, Netflix, and Dumpert. ACM did not find any indications for anticompetitive risks on (...)

This case note analyses the decision of the Turkish Competition Authority (TCA) in which it has decided that the worldwide manufacturer of luxury sunglasses, Luxottica, abused its dominant position it held in the market for the wholesale of branded sunglasses by its rebate schemes which (...)

Rotten Otton hit with highest ever ACL penalty* Following investigative action taken by the ACCC in 2015, the Federal Court has, yet again, broken its own record for penalties imposed under the ACL. In a warning to other companies offering wealth creation strategies that are too good to be (...)

Introduction On 10 August 2017, the UK Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) issued a rare ‘no grounds for action’ decision following its investigation into whether certain rebate schemes offered by Unilever amounted to an abuse of dominance in breach of UK and EU competition rules (the (...)

On August 29th, 2017, a long-awaited reform of the Italian turnover thresholds for merger control has entered into force following publication of law N. 124 of 4 August 2017 on the Official Journal (occurred on August 14th). The new turnover thresholds are immediately applicable to all (...)

Düsseldorf Higher Regional Court confirms prohibition of EDEKA/Kaiser’s Tengelmann merger* Bonn, 24 August 2017: Yesterday the Düsseldorf Higher Regional Court rejected appeals filed by EDEKA and Kaiser´s Tengelmann against the Bundeskartellamt’s prohibition of the merger between the super (...)

MERGERS: COMMISSION OPENS IN-DEPTH INVESTIGATION INTO PROPOSED ACQUISITION OF MONSANTO BY BAYER* The Commission has opened an in-depth investigation to assess the proposed acquisition of Monsanto by Bayer under the EU Merger Regulation. The Commission has concerns that the merger may reduce (...)

After 894 days of discussion, the Italian Parliament has approved, on 2 August 2017, what should be the “annual” competition act — a series of measures that should be adopted on a yearly basis to promote competition. Among the disparate set of measures contained in the new law, concerning a (...)

Directive 2014/104/EU of the European Parliament and of the Council of 26 November 2014 on certain rules governing actions for damages under national law for infringements of the competition law provisions of the Member States (the “Damages Directive“) has been transposed into Cyprus law. (...)

On August 21, 2017, the Third Circuit overturned a decision that had applied excessive pleading standards against plaintiffs challenging reverse-payment settlements. Writing for a unanimous panel, Chief Judge Smith held that, in the wake of FTC v. Actavis, 133 S. Ct. 2223 (2013), courts should (...)

The Supreme Administrative Court of Lithuania (‘Court’) upheld the Competition Council’s (Konkurencijos taryba) decision, according to which construction companies were fined for having concluded bid rigging agreements in 2011-2012. The Court confirmed the Council’s power to use the (...)

Nationalized Banks Exempted From CCI Approval for Mergers* The Ministry of Corporate Affairs (“MCA”) has exempted Nationalized Banks from the applicability of the merger control regime under the Act. The MCA vide a notification dated August 30, 2017 , stipulates that in exercise of the (...)

On 24 August 2017 the Competition Council (CC) held that the Ministry of Finance has violated competition law by endorsing the decision of the state-owned enterprise to accord favorable treatment to a private company in the gaming market. In 2014 the CC has commenced an investigation into (...)

CCI amends Lesser Penalty Regulations* The Competition Commission of India (“CCI”) vide a Gazette Notification (published in the Gazette of India) on August 22, 2017, (“the amendment”) has published “The Competition Commission of India (Lesser Penalty) Amendment Regulations, 2017 (No.1 of (...)

Regional Rural Banks mergers gets exemption from CCI* The Ministry of Corporate Affairs (MCA) has exempted Regional Rural Banks (RRBs) from the applicability of the merger control regime. The MCA vide a notification dated August 10, 2017 (Notification), stipulates that Sections 5 and 6 of (...)