July 2001

The agreements concluded by Heineken and its Italian subsidiary, Partesa, for the distribution of beer through the horeca trade channel have been found by Italian Competition Authority (ICA) to not be caught by the prohibition of anticompetitive agreements laid down by Section 2 of the Act (...)

Press release published on the official website of the French Competition Authority. Ray-Ban sun products : Bausch & Lomb penalised for imposing sales prices on its network* In a decision dated 19th July 2001, following a referral by the company Casino France, the Conseil de la (...)

Description of the impugned case Regarding to the facts, French competition Council showed that all pricing policy of distributors contrary to the price floor determined by the supplier, even on a short period, should be assimilated to a systematic discount prohibited by the supplier. (...)

"Commission fines eight companies in graphite electrode cartel"* On 18 July 2001 the Commission fined Germany’s SGL Carbon AG, UCAR International of the United States and six other companies a total of € 218.8 million for fixing the prices and sharing the market for graphite electrodes. This (...)

France Télécom fined 40 million FF for abuse of a dominant position* In a decision dated 23rd July 2001, issued in response to a complaint filed in 2000 by the Autorité de régulation des télécommunications (Telecommunications Regulation Authority), the Conseil de la concurrence found that, (...)

"Commission exceptionally orders the licensing of a copyright to safeguard competition in the German pharmaceutical sales reports market"* 1. Introduction On 3 July 2001 the Commission adopted an interim measures Decision finding that IMS Health, a US company selling pharmaceutical sales (...)

This article analyses the three major recent cases dealing with the boundary between EC competition law and intellectual property rights: the Commission’s interim measures decision in the IMS case, the European Court of Justice’s later judgment in IMS and, finally, the Commission’s decision in (...)

"Merger control: main developments between 1 May and 31 August 2001"* On 27 July, Swiss-based Nestlé made significant concessions in order to obtain a clearance for the acquisition of the American petfood company Ralston Purina. The conditions concerns Spain, Italy and Greece. In Spain, (...)

"Merger control: main developments between 1 May and 31 August 2001"* In July, following an in-depth investigation under the Merger regulation, the Commission authorised the creation of a joint venture between De Beers and LVMH. This joint venture company, Rapids World, will be active in the (...)

"Merger control: main developments between 1 May and 31 August 2001"* On 20 July, the Commission agreed to a request from the UK authorities to refer to them the examination of the acquisition by the Newcastle-based Go-Ahead Group and Paris-based Keolis SA of joint control of London-based (...)

"Merger control: main developments between 1 May and 31 August 2001"* Following remedies offered by the parties concerned, the Commission on 19 July gave the go-ahead for the Allianz insurance group to take over Dresdner Bank. The Commission’s investigations focused on the consequences of (...)

"A methodology for analysing State aid linked to stranded costs"* 1. The ‘stranded costs’ concept At the time the European electricity market was not liberalised, recovery of all investments by electricity undertakings was achieved through adequate tariff fixation by the States. In these (...)

"Germany – Commission approves rescue aid of about Euro 2 billion for Bankgesellschaft Berlin AG (BGB)"* On 25 July 2001, the Commission approved the Federal Government’s application in respect of rescue aid of about € 2 billion to be granted by the Land of Berlin toBankgesellschaft Berlin (...)

"Germany – Commission investigates new aid to Neue Erba Lautex GmbH and takes Germany to Court for non-execution of negative decision on aid to ‘old’ Erba Lautex"* On 25 July 2001, the Commission adopted two closely linked decisions concerning the bankrupt Erba Lautex GmbH and its legal (...)

"Two new transparency instruments: the State Aid Register and the State Aid Scoreboard"* Last July the European Commission unveiled the new State aid Scoreboard. Following publication of the State aid Register earlier in the year, the Scoreboard was the second of two new transparency (...)

Judges: Dyk (author), Bryson, and Linn In Andrx Pharmaceuticals, Inc. v. Biovail Corp., No. 01-1650 (Fed. Cir. Jan. 17, 2002), the Federal Circuit vacated and remanded a lower court’s order (1) shortening the statutory thirty-month delay of FDA approval of Andrx Pharmaceuticals, Inc.’s (...)