Last week the European Commission (“Commission”) published its eagerly awaited preliminary report on the e-commerce sector inquiry (the “Report”) [1] and opened a two-month public consultation on the Report. In this alert, we explain the background to the Report, the Commission’s main findings, and the next steps that it will take. Background The Commission can conduct inquiries into a particular sector of the economy to collect information from businesses or industry associations and carry out inspections with a view to identifying restrictions of competition. [2] Such sector inquiries tend to lead to investigations into individual companies’ business practices. For example, the cases fining pharmaceutical companies for reverse patent settlements resulted from the Commission’s 2008-2009
The EU Commission publishes its preliminary report on its e-commerce inquiry and opens a two months public consultation
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