Black cause
Institution Definition
Case Comments
Antitrust: Commission re-imposes €376.36 million fine on Intel for anticompetitive practices in the market for computer chips* The European Commission has re-imposed a fine of around €376.36 million on Intel for a previously established abuse of dominant position in the market for computer (...)
On August 25, 2023, in Deslandes v. McDonald’s, the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals vacated and remanded a district court’s dismissal of an antitrust case that challenged no-hire and non-solicitation clauses in McDonald’s franchise agreements. The Court held that the district court had not (...)
Five Amazon Marketplace Sellers and Four Amazon Marketplace Companies Sentenced for Price Fixing* Five individuals and four companies have been sentenced for participating in a conspiracy to fix the prices of DVDs and Blu-Ray Discs sold on the Amazon marketplace. This investigation has (...)
Super Bock : RPM Not Automatically a Restriction of Competition By Object* On June 29, 2023, the Court of Justice ruled on questions referred by the Lisbon Court of Appeals relating to alleged resale price maintenance (“RPM”) by Super Bock, a Portuguese beverage manufacturer. The Court of (...)
Competition Commission launches educational campaign on Resale Price Maintenance* The Competition Commission (Commission) launches a citywide educational campaign (Campaign) today to enhance public awareness and understanding of resale price maintenance (RPM) and its potential harm as well (...)
Facts. Bongard manufactures and markets a wide range of bakery-pastry equipment under its own brand name, including a divider-former called "Paneotrad". Bongard distributes its products either directly, or through an exclusive distribution network of some thirty dealers throughout France. The (...)
The present De minimis Special Issue presents an overview of the application of de minimis rules across the spectrum of EU law, and in particular in EU antitrust, State aid, merger control and the newly introduced Foreign Subsidies regulation. Building on the methodology of the 2015 Special Issue, the present Foreword will highlight the most important developments that took place in the application of de minimis rules since May 2015, by drawing, among others, on a sample of 60 case reports published in the e-Competitions newsletter, which raised issues pertaining to the implementation of de minimis rules.
Advocate General Rantos’ Opinion In Autoridade Da Concorrência and ECP (Case C-331/21) On The Notion Of Potential Competition And The Distinction Between Restrictions “By Object” And “By Effect”* On March 2, 2023, Advocate General Rantos delivered his opinion on the questions referred to the (...)
Last week the Supreme Court decided a case interpreting the Bank Secrecy Act, Bittner v. U.S., 598 U.S. __(2023). Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson joined Justice Neil Gorsuch’s opinion for the majority in a 5-4 decision. The case revolved around what constitutes a violation of the act: Each (...)
The Belgian Competition Authority has imposed a fine on companies of the Caudalie group for imposing minimum prices and active and passive sales restrictions* On 18 January 2023, the Competition College decided that companies of the Caudalie group imposed minimum prices and active and (...)
In 2021, the Belgian Competition Authority imposed a fine of EUR 859,310 on several companies in the French Caudalie group for breaching competition law by imposing minimum prices and restricting active and passive sales in the framework of its selective distribution network. On 1 December (...)
This case summary aims to offer insight regarding the Turkish Competition Board’s (“Board”) Chamber of Electrical Engineers Decision (“Decision”), where the Board assessed whether a group of electrical engineers who are members of the Chamber of Electrical Engineers, District Representation in (...)
INTRODUCTION The Turkish Competition Authority (“TCA”) launched a full-fledged investigation (“Investigation”) against Arabam Com İnternet ve Bilgi Hizmetleri A.Ş. (“Arabam.com”), Vava Cars Turkey Otomotiv A.Ş. (“VAVA CARS”), Araba Sepeti Otomotiv Bilişim Danışmanlık Hizmetleri Sanayi ve (...)
As the articles in this special edition demonstrate, criminal antitrust enforcement has been in the news increasingly in recent years. Many of the articles in this special edition concern the prosecution of “hardcore” cartels, the “supreme evil of antitrust.” Other articles discuss anti-cartel reforms across the world. Still others concern new frontiers for criminal enforcement, including monopolistic conduct and cartel conduct in labor markets. Readers will profit from this special edition on a variety of fronts.
We cannot survey all these developments in a brief foreword. Instead, we first provide a global overview of criminal sanctions for cartelists and make the case for enhanced accountability through prison sentences and personal fines. We then examine the possibility, recently raised by the U.S. Department of Justice, of criminally prosecuting unilateral monopolistic conduct.
Introduction In the Schlecker case, (BGH, decision of 29 November 2022, KZR 42/20, Schlecker. The BGH’s press release can be found here.) the Federal Court of Justice (BGH) dealt with claims by a drugstore chain against manufacturers for damages on the grounds of excessive prices. In (...)
Articles
This section selects books on themes related to competition laws and economics. This compilation does not attempt to be exhaustive but rather a survey of themes important in the area. The survey usually covers publication over the last three months after publication of the latest issue of (...)
Following the presidential election of April 24, 2022, the Editorial Board of the magazine Concurrences has launched a call to its readers to make proposals for reform to the President of the Republic and his new Government. The proposals below have been suggested by the readers of the (...)
Digital technologies can have both positive and negative effects on competition. The consumer benefits fully from the effect of increased transparency and competition through the posting of rates online. Nevertheless, the consumer could be harmed by the facilitating effect of algorithms in the (...)
This section selects books on themes related to competition laws and economics. This compilation does not attempt to be exhaustive but rather a survey of themes important in the area. The survey usually covers publication over the last three months after publication of the latest issue of (...)
Interview conducted by Natasha Tardif and Marc Lévy, Partners, Reed Smith, Paris What are the factors that make people prefer distribution or direct sales? Is it necessary to go through a distribution network to reach enough customers? Direct-to-consumer" or "DTC" sales were not well (...)
During the Nasse Seminar organized the 2nd of July of 2013, Laurence Idot, Patrick Rey talked about the new commercial behaviours in online sales field. The seminar was animed by Emmanuel Combe, vice president of the Competition authority. Introduction by Emmanuel Combe In 2011, (...)
During the Nasse Seminar organized the 24th of May of 2018, Emmanuel Combe (Vice-president of the Competition authority) and Jérôme Philippe (economist, lawyer at Freshfields Brukhaus Dringer) talked about the selective distribution, its evolution and its application to the luxury sector. (...)
Possible effects in Switzerland are sufficient to assert jurisdiction of Switzerland over conduct taking place outside Switzerland. The Supreme Court adopted a broad definition of the territorial scope of the Cartel Act, by not only refusing, but also prohibiting, to consider any level of (...)
By importing all the defects of Title IV on the law of restrictive practices into the Title II of Book IV of the French Commercial Code, the legislator infringes the coherence of the law of anticompetitive practices. Although it is necessary to oversee certain sectors, it is not in Title II of (...)
Article 101 TFEU prohibits all agreements between undertakings which have as their object or effect the prevention, restriction, or distorsion of competition within the internal market. If the distinction between restrictions of competition by object or by effect deals with the proof and (...)
This set of three papers is derived from the Philippe Nasse’s seminar on the new practices in the e-commerce that was held on July 2, 2013 in Paris. The e-commerce has grown very rapidly these past few years and contributes to the competitive animation of the distribution sector by showing (...)
The De minimis communication of the European Commission defines under which conditions agreements between firms will not be considered to restrict competition in a sensitive way. The three contributions in this article discuss its effectiveness in promoting legal security for firms, especially (...)
Paradoxically, competition law today is frequently used more as a weapon of defence than to challenge networks, and notably against certain rules of national law. When relied on as a means of challenging networks, competition law is mainly used either to circumvent the networks, or to gain (...)
This set of papers is derived from the training session on the Parallel trade organised by Concurrences Review that has held on the 12th April 2011. In the first contribution, Gautier Duflos, of the economic office of the Competition Authority explains that parallel trade exploits price (...)
1 The CCLA has a strong interest in mass distribution. Recently, it has recently carried out a self-investigation to investigate the practice of "category management" between food retail operators and some of their suppliers. In the past, other competition authorities have also taken an (...)
Events
Webinar of the "Law & Economics" Series organised by Concurrences, in partnership with Gide Loyrette Nouel, with Marieke Scholz (Deputy Head of Unit - Antitrust case support and policy, DG COMP), Fabienne Siredey-Garnier (Vice President, French Competition Authority), Franck Audran (Partner, Gide Loyrette Nouel) and Dimitri Dimitrov (Partner, Gide Loyrette Nouel).
Law & Economics Workshop organized by Concurrences Review in partnership with McDermott Will & Emery.
Law & Economics Workshop with Frédéric Jenny (OECD), in partnership with the Autorité de la concurrence, Magenta and Charles River Associate.
Antitrust Procedure Workshop organized by Concurrences in partnership with Norton Rose Fulbright.
Law & Economics workshop organized by Concurrences in partnership with Cleary Gottlieb and Microeconomix.
Stéphane Gervasoni
Marta Giner Asins
Martine Behar-Touchais
Law & Economics workshop organized by Concurrences in partnership with Simmons & Simmons and MAPP.
Ombline Ancelin
Antoine Chapsal
Étienne Pfister
Law & Economics Workshop organized by Concurrences in partnership with RBB Economics and White & Case.
Nils Wahl
Anna Vernet
James Killick
Francesco Rosati...
Half-day conference organized by Concurrences in partnership with Norton Rose Fulbright and RBB Economics.
Law & Economics workshop organized by Concurrences in partnership with Gide Loyrette Nouel and RBB Economics.
Catherine Prieto
Stéphane Hautbourg
Francesco Rosati
Martin Coleman
John Davies
Geeta Gouri
Richard Murgatroyd...