


Daniel Vowden
Daniel Vowden is a Partner at Herbert Smith Freehils and is an expert in EU and UK competition law matters. He has acted on complex and challenging UK merger control cases and many high-profile, cross-border deals requiring regulatory approval in Brussels and in other jurisdictions. Daniel’s transactional expertise is balanced with in-depth experience of behavioural and advisory matters, including EU and UK cartel investigations, with a particular focus on the financial services, mining, TMT and retail sectors.
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Articles
10012 Bulletin
134
On 6 April 2022, the European Commission (“Commission”) issued Guidance to Member States on how to screen foreign direct investment (“FDI”) from Russia and Belarus into the EU, in light of the ongoing military conflict in Ukraine (“FDI Guidance”). Following Russia’s unjustified attack against (...)
694
The EU Parliament and Council reached political agreement on the Digital Markets Act (DMA) late on Thursday night. The Commission has been quick to welcome the agreement, stating that the DMA “will bring fairer conditions to consumers and businesses for many digital services across the EU” (see (...)
571
On 1 March 2022 the EU Commission published, for consultation, its draft revised rules on horizontal cooperation agreements. The rules consist of two horizontal block exemption Regulations (covering Research & Development agreements and Specialisation agreements) and Guidelines on the (...)
180
In March the European Commission (“Commission”) published, for consultation, its draft revised Guidelines on the application of Article 101 TFEU to horizontal cooperation agreements (“draft revised Horizontal Guidelines”). The proposed revisions are important as they update and expand the existing (...)
440
On 20 January 2022 the European Commission (“Commission“) published its final report on the consumer Internet of Things (“IoT“) sector inquiry, largely confirming its preliminary findings issued in July 2021. These include concerns around high market entry barriers, the influence on the market of a (...)
215
The German Federal Cartel Office (FCO) has published new guidelines on its leniency programme and on the setting of fines in cartel proceedings. Unfortunately, both guidelines are so far available only in German. The previous guidelines date from 2006 and 2013 respectively. The FCO has now (...)
176
The Illumina/GRAIL case saga continues. As we reported in our previous briefing, the Illumina / GRAIL deal provides the first illustrative example of the European Commission’s ("Commission") new approach to try and “catch” transactions using the referral mechanism in Article 22 EU Merger (...)
849
On 9 July 2021, following a comprehensive consultation process, the EU Commission (Commission) published its proposals for a revised Vertical Block Exemption Regulation (Draft VBER) and Draft Vertical Guidelines, due to replace the current regime which expires on 31 May 2022. The previous (...)
1181
On 22 June 2021 the European Commission (“Commission”) revealed that it had carried out surprise inspections at the German premises of a company active in the clothing sector, suspected of infringing competition rules. This was the first unannounced inspection, or “dawn raid”, conducted by the (...)
219
In its judgment of 21 May 2021 the Competition Appeal Tribunal (“CAT”) upheld the CMA’s approach in applying the share of supply test to assert jurisdiction over Sabre’s acquisition of Farelogix, (with the CMA ultimately prohibiting the transaction following an in-depth investigation). The CAT (...)
276
In April and May 2021 the European Commission ("EC") announced the imposition of fines totalling almost €400 million on banks implicated in two separate cartels relating to bond trading. In a separate development, the EC took unprecedented action to exclude a number of international banks from (...)
324
On 5 May 2021, the European Commission (Commission) issued its proposal for a Regulation on foreign subsidies distorting the EU market. This follows on from the Commission’s White Paper issued in June 2020 and the extensive public consultation that ensued. The primary objective of this (...)
263
In April and May 2021 the European Commission ("EC") announced the imposition of fines totalling almost €400 million on banks implicated in two separate cartels relating to bond trading. In a separate development, the EC took unprecedented action to exclude a number of international banks from (...)
208
On 26 March 2021, the French Constitutional Council declared unconstitutional Article L.462-2 of the French Commercial Code ("FCC") on obstruction to an investigation of the FCA. Pursuant to this provision, the FCA can set a fine for obstruction, the amount of which cannot exceed 1% of the (...)
204
On 24 March 2021, the FCA fined the three main French manufacturers of industrial sandwiches sold under private label for having defined a common strategy when responding to calls for tender launched by large and medium-sized retailers. The FCA launched dawn raids at the premises of the (...)
221
In March 2021, the Court of Justice of the EU ("CJEU") partially annulled a judgment of the General Court ("GC"), reducing from €3.8 million to €2.6 million the fine imposed on Pometon S.p.A ("Pometon") for its participation in the steel abrasives cartel. The CJEU granted the fine reduction (...)
223
On 18 March 2021, the Italian Administrative Highest Court (Consiglio di Stato) referred a case to the CJEU for a preliminary ruling regarding a request for revocation of its judgment with regard an antitrust infringement by Novartis-Roche. The CJEU has been asked to rule on whether the (...)
212
In March, the Russian Supreme Court adopted a Decree providing clarifications on antitrust matters (the "Plenum Decree") . The Plenum Decree replaced most of the previous antitrust clarifications issued by the Supreme Commercial Court back in 2008. The new measure is comprehensive and covers a (...)
199
Facts and FCA decision On 13 March 2012, the French Competition Authority ("FCA") sanctioned a flour cartel between French and German millers. One of the anti-competitive practices consisted in a non-aggression pact limiting flour imports between France and Germany, leading to market sharing (...)
212
The Munich Regional Court has granted an injunction based on Article 101 TFEU against an arrangement between Google and the German Ministry of Health . The Ministry operates a national online platform (“Gesund.bund.de”) providing information on health, including a short description of common (...)
260
On 27 January 2021, the Court of Justice of the EU (CJEU) dismissed in its entirety an appeal brought by the Goldman Sachs Group (Goldman Sachs) against a General Court ruling which confirmed Goldman Sachs’ joint and several liability in the 2014 power cables cartel (judgment here). The CJEU (...)
200
At the end of January 2021, the revised Act against Restraints on Competition ("ARC") entered into force. Most attention has focused on the new powers bestowed upon the Federal Cartel Office ("FCO") to investigate the likes of Google, Amazon and Facebook. However, the revised ARC also contains (...)
131
On 1 January 2021, with the end of the Brexit transition period, the UK entered the real world of Brexit. This has immediate implications for merger control both in the UK and the EU. Any companies involved in deals need to be aware of the impact. As of 1 January 2021 the EU Merger Regulation (...)
40
The National Court has annulled the CNMC’s decision in case S/DC/0525/14 CEMENTOS. In this case, the CNMC fined a number of companies for taking part in four cartels, which constituted four separate single and continuous infringements. However, the National Court, found that the conditions for (...)
108
On 9 December 2020, the Court of Justice of the EU (“CJEU”) annulled a European Commission decision accepting legally binding commitments offered by Paramount aimed at addressing a Commission investigation into cross-border pay-TV in the EU (the “Paramount Commitment Decision”). The CJEU also set (...)
65
On 22 January 2021, the European Commission published a non-confidential version of its decision to fine ethylene purchasers Orbia, Clariant and Celanese a total of EUR 260 million for participating in a cartel aimed at purchasing ethylene at the lowest possible price, to the detriment of (...)
150
In July 2020, the UK’s Competition and Markets Authority (“CMA”) published its market study final report “Online platforms and digital advertising” (“Report”) (see the Report here). The Report includes significant recommendations on the future regulation of platforms funded by digital advertising, (...)
1895
On 17 April 2020 the CMA announced its provisional clearance of Amazon’s proposed acquisition of a stake in Deliveroo. The transaction was referred for an in-depth Phase 2 investigation in December 2019, in light of concerns about the impact on competition for the supply of online restaurant (...)
162
On 6 June 2013 the Office of Fair Trading (OFT) published its decision on the completed acquisition of certain assets of Petroplus Refining and Marketing Limited (PRML). The asset sale was conducted in the course of administration proceedings, the underlying business having ceased trading. (...)