Donald Slater is a Partner in the Brussels office of the law firm Ashurst. He has specialised in EU law since 2000, mainly working in private practice but also in the EU institutions and academia. He has a broad and deep experience of litigation before the European Courts, having represented clients in a range of cases from cartels and State aid to regulatory cases and VAT. Donald returned to Ashurst in 2018 after spending three years in the European Court of Justice in the chambers of an Advocate General, working on cases in all fields of EU law, with particular emphasis on regulatory law.
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On 10 July 2023, the European Commission adopted and published on its website the EU Foreign Subsidies Regulation ("FSR") Implementing Regulation ("IR") and annexes, including the notification forms for concentrations (M&A) and public procurement. The IR will be published in the Official (...)
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On 1 June 2022, the revised EU Vertical Block Exemption Regulation, Regulation 2022/720, (’VBER’) and Vertical Guidelines entered into force. On the same day, the UK Vertical Agreement Block Exemption Order (’VABEO’) entered into force. Both the VBER and VABEO provide for a one year (...)
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On 12 May 2022, the European Court of Justice ("the Court") delivered a preliminary ruling on abuse of dominance through the exploitation of data. As the historic monopolist, ENEL had access to customer data which it used to strengthen its position. Key takeaways ENEL prevented its (...)
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introduction The aggression against Ukraine by Russia, the sanctions imposed by the EU and its international partners and the retaliatory counter-measures have created significant economic uncertainties, and disrupted trade flows and supply chains in many sectors. They have also led to (...)
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Introduction The aggression against Ukraine by Russia, the sanctions imposed by the EU and its international partners and the retaliatory counter-measures have created significant economic uncertainties, and disrupted trade flows and supply chains in many sectors. They have also led to (...)
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On 22 March 2022, the European Court of Justice ("ECJ") delivered two judgments clarifying the scope of protection of the non bis in idem (double jeopardy) principle which provides that a (natural or legal) person may only be sanctioned once for a single unlawful course of conduct where the (...)
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On 24 February 2022, the UK High Court issued the first judgment on the interpretation of EU State aid rules under the Northern Ireland Protocol and the new UK subsidies regime (the "Judgment"). Key takeaways After Brexit, UK measures (including tariff measures) can still be subject to EU (...)
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On 16 September 2021, the ECJ handed down its much awaited judgment on whether the Belgian tax rulings concerning excess profits could be classified as an aid scheme (as opposed to individual aid measures). The ECJ set aside the General Court’s judgment and backed the European Commission’s (...)
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In its decision of 28 April 2021, the Belgian Competition Authority ("BCA") considered that the commitments offered by Carrefour and Provera under the purchase alliance probe were proportionate and suitable to address potential restrictions of competition. Following Carrefour’s divestment (...)
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On 15 April 2021, the European Court of Justice ("ECJ") handed down its ruling on Italmobiliare’s appeal against European Commission decision AT.39563, finding a cartel in the retail food packaging sector. The ECJ rejected Italmobiliare’s argument that it should benefit from immunity as (...)
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In its ruling in Deutsche Telekom v Commission (C-152/19 P), the European Court of Justice ("ECJ") provided guidance on the application of the Bronner case law to refusal to supply cases, as well as on the relevant facts, and on the circumstances in which an infringement of competition law can (...)
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The European Court of Justice ("ECJ") confirmed the judgment of the General Court ("GC") upholding the European Commission’s pay-for-delay decision. The ruling held that the originator and generics manufacturers must be considered potential competitors despite Lundbeck’s process patents, and (...)
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In its ruling in Pometon (C-440/19 P), the European Court of Justice ("ECJ") issued its first ruling on the use of so-called ’hybrid settlement’ procedures in cases in which settlement decisions do not cover all parties to an infringement. What you need to know – key takeaways The ECJ has (...)
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On 2 March 2021, the European Court of Justice ("ECJ") dismissed in its entirety the European Commission’s appeal against the General Court’s judgment regarding financial support adopted by an Italian consortium of banks for the benefit of one of its members. The General Court found correctly (...)
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On 10 February 2021, the European Commission accepted commitments from Aspen under Article 9(1) of Regulation 1/2003, concluding a three year investigation into suspected excessive pricing practices affecting six critical cancer medicines. What you need to know - key takeaways The (...)
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On 28 January 2021, the European Court of Justice ("ECJ") upheld a ruling of the General Court finding that an information request issued by the EU Commission, as part of its investigation into Qualcomm’s predatory pricing practices, did not breach the principles of necessity and (...)
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On 27 January 2021, the Court of Justice of the European Union ("the Court") upheld the €37.3 million fine imposed on Goldman Sachs as a result of the involvement of portfolio company Prysmian in the power cables cartel. The ruling has held that in the circumstances of this case, Goldman (...)
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On 20 January 2021 the European Court of Justice ("ECJ") upheld the General Court’s ruling on the European Commission’s duty to pay default interest on reimbursed fines as a form of restitutio in integrum, clarifying the rate to be applied and that late payment of interest will itself incur (...)
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On 14 January 2021, the European Court of Justice delivered a preliminary ruling (case C-450/19) setting out guidance on when an anticompetitive agreement on submitting prices in the context of a call for tenders is considered to come to an end. This ruling has important implications for the (...)
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On 16 December 2020 the General Court of the European Union (the "Court") issued an important ruling in the International Skating Union ("ISU") case. While accepting that sports governing bodies may apply a prior authorisation system for third party events to ensure that all sports (...)
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On 30 October 2020, the European Commission ("Commission") published a Staff Working Documentsummarising the results of the evaluation of EU State aid rules. While State aid rules are broadly fit for purpose, some individual rules will need to be adapted or updated, notably to reflect the (...)
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On 7 October 2020, the European Commission (the "Commission") made legally binding commitments offered by Broadcom to ensure competition in chipset markets for modems and TV set-top boxes. WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW - KEY TAKEAWAYS Commitments decisions are adopted in lieu of finding an (...)
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€13 billion Apple tax recovery decision quashed On 15 July 2020, the EU General Court ("GC") handed down its much awaited judgment in the Apple case. It overturned the European Commission’s ("Commission") decision ordering Ireland to recover EUR 13 billion (plus interests) in illegal State (...)
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On 14 May 2020, the European Court of Justice (the "ECJ") partially quashed the General Court’s (the "GC") judgment upholding the European Commission’s ("Commission") power cables cartel decision with respect to NKT and its wholly owned subsidiary NKT Verwaltungs (together "NKT" or the (...)
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On 8 April 2020, the European Commission ("Commission") published a Temporary Framework Communication ("Communication") to provide antitrust guidance to companies cooperating in response to urgent situations related to the Covid-19 outbreak. The Commission also announced that it issued a (...)
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On 2 April 2020, the European Court of Justice ("ECJ") delivered its judgment in Budapest Bank on a reference for a preliminary ruling from Hungary’s highest court. The judgment confirms the important limitations that apply before competition authorities and courts are able classify (...)
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On 30 January 2020 the European Commission ("Commission") fined NBCUniversal EUR 14,327,000 for restricting intellectual property licensees from selling licensed merchandise within the EEA to territories and customers beyond those allocated to them. WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW - KEY TAKEAWAYS (...)
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On 30 January 2020 (case C-307/18), the European Court of Justice ("ECJ") issued a preliminary ruling that sheds more light on the circumstances in which an agreement settling a patent dispute between a pharmaceutical patent holder and a company intending to launch a competing generic product (...)
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On 30 January 2020, the European Court of Justice dismissed the appeals in joined cases C-538/18 P and C-539/18 P brought by Czech national rail carrier České dráhy, which sought to set aside the judgments of the General Court in cases T‑325/16 and T‑621/16 upholding the European Commission’s (...)
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On 12 December 2019, the European Court of Justice ("ECJ") provided important clarification, holding that Article 101 TFEU must be interpreted as meaning that a public body which granted promotional loans to purchasers of products covered by a cartel are entitled to claim damages for loss (...)
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On 28 November 2019, the European Court of Justice ("ECJ") handed down judgments in three appeals against General Court judgments that had dismissed actions challenging the European Commission’s ("Commission") power cables cartel decision. Leniency applicant ABB’s appeal was partially upheld, (...)
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On 14 November 2019, the European Court of Justice ("ECJ") dismissed the appeal in case C-599/18 P brought by Silec Cable ("Silec"), which sought to set aside an earlier judgment by the General Court upholding the European Commission’s ("Commission") power cables decision. WHAT YOU NEED TO (...)
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On 7 November 2019, the General Court ("GC") partially annulled with respect to Campine the Commission’s decision in the car battery recycling cartel case. While the Commission was correct to establish that Campine had participated in an unlawful cartel, the GC concluded that the Commission (...)
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On 17 October 2019, the Court of Justice of the European Union ("ECJ") dismissed an appeal by ethanol company Alcogroup and its subsidiary Alcodis (collectivey "Alcogroup") against a ruling of the General Court ("GC") which had dismissed the company’s request for the suspension of the European (...)
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On 16 October 2019, for the first time in 18 years, the European Commission ("Commission") imposed interim measures on Broadcom - a major supplier of integrated circuits for communications devices - in order to prevent "serious and irreparable damage" to competition from occurring in certain (...)
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On 7 October 2019, the European Council formally adopted a Directive aimed at improving protection of whistle-blowers in the EU (the "Directive"). The Directive will now be published in the Official Journal of the European Union ("OJEU") and will enter into force 20 days after publication. (...)
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This set of articles reproduces the discussions delivered at the first round-table at the Belgian Competition Day held in Brussels on October 21, 2010. Mr. Ost stresses the complementarity of public and private enforcement. He however fears the possible impact of a « private enforcement (...)
