Herbert Smith Freehills (Brussels)

Daniel Vowden

Herbert Smith Freehills (Brussels)
Partner

Daniel Vowden is a Partner at Herbert Smith Freehills LLP in the Brussels office. He advises international clients on the full spectrum of EU and UK competition law matters and in relation to foreign direct investment controls, including approvals under the UK National Security and Investment Act. Daniel has acted on complex and challenging UK merger control cases and many high-profile, cross-border deals requiring international regulatory approvals. 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 pharmaceuticals, financial services, mining, TMT, and retail sectors. Daniel speaks regularly at antitrust conferences in Brussels and London and has been published in a range of specialist journals. He is the editor of Herbert Smith Freehills’ quarterly update on EMEA-wide cartel developments, Cartel Intel, and is a contributor to Global Competition Review’s Foreign Direct Investment Regulation Guide. As a member of the European Competition Law Forum, Daniel has led or contributed to policy papers on the UK hold separate merger rules, EU proposed controls on foreign subsidies and reforms to the application of Article 22 EU Merger Regulation. Daniel is qualified as a solicitor in England and Wales and is admitted to the Brussels bar (A-list).

Distinctions

Auteurs associés

Herbert Smith Freehills (Melbourne)
Herbert Smith Freehills (London)
Herbert Smith Freehills (Johannesburg)
Herbert Smith Freehills (London)
Herbert Smith Freehills (London)

Articles

12930 Bulletin

Kyriakos Fountoukakos, Daniel Vowden, Peter Rowland, Kristien Geeurickx The EU Commission publishes a package of measures aimed at simplifying its merger control procedures in order to reduce the workload and costs of mergers

31

On 20 April 2023 the European Commission published a package of measures aimed at simplifying its merger control procedures under the EU merger Regulation (EUMR). The new measures, which will take effect as of 1 September 2023, aim to streamline and make less burdensome the Commission’s merger (...)

Daniel Vowden, Kyriakos Fountoukakos, Vassilena Karadakova, Abhijeet Sinha, Phoebe Hirst The EU Commission announces plans for new Article 102 TFEU Guidelines and amends the 2008 Guidance on enforcement priorities

4

On 27 March 2023, the European Commission (Commission) announced its intention to adopt detailed new guidelines on the application of Article 102 TFEU to exclusionary conduct. The Commission explained that “Article 102 TFEU is one of the few areas of European competition law where no Guidelines (...)

Daniel Vowden, Sergio Sorinas, Kyriakos Fountoukakos, Abhijeet Sinha, Agathe Esch, Souzanna Omran The EU Court of Justice rules that non-notifiable mergers can be reviewed under abuse of dominance rules (Towercast)

295

INTRODUCTION On 16 March 2023, the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) issued its keenly anticipated judgment in Towercast(Judgment), following a request for a preliminary ruling by the Court of Appeal, Paris (Court of Appeal). The Judgment clarifies that acquisitions by dominant (...)

Stephen Wisking, Daniel Vowden, Phoebe Hirst The UK Competition Appeal Tribunal finds in favour of two automobile manufacturer’s challenges against the extraterritorial application of the competition authority’s investigatory powers (Volkswagen / BMW)

520

On 8 February 2023, the UK’s Competition Appeal Tribunal (CAT) issued a joint judgment in two cases : BMW AG v CMA and R (on the application of VW AG) v CMA, relating to the territorial scope of the CMA’s information gathering powers under Section 26 of the Competition Act 1998 (CA98). The CAT (...)

Kyriakos Fountoukakos, Daniel Vowden, Peter Rowland, Laura Zsarnai, Violetta Meli The EU Commission publishes the ground-breaking Digital Markets Acts which aims at improving the contestability and fairness of digital markets

31

The EU’s groundbreaking Digital Markets Act (DMA) came into force on 1 November 2022 and applies from 2 May 2023. In this update we summarise key developments : the Implementing Regulation, institutional changes in DG COMP, workshops, and national proposals granting National Competition (...)

Kyriakos Fountoukakos, Daniel Vowden, Peter Rowland, Nika Nonveiller, Violetta Meli The EU Parliament publishes the Digital Markets Act in the Official Journal, creating a new regulatory regime for large tech platforms

147

The Digital Markets Act (DMA) is a ground-breaking piece of EU regulation, imposing rules on platforms acting as “gatekeepers” in the digital sector, and aiming to ensure fairness and contestability in digital markets. It will enter into force on 1 November 2022, setting the clock running for (...)

Kyriakos Fountoukakos, Daniel Vowden, Kristien Geeurickx The EU Commission blocks the acquisition of a genetics analysis provider by a cancer detection healthcare company (Illumina / GRAIL)

759

On 6 September 2022 the EU Commission adopted a decision under the EU merger Regulation (EUMR) prohibiting the completed acquisition by Illumina of GRAIL. This is the first time the Commission has examined a transaction below the EUMR thresholds and all national EU Member State thresholds (...)

Kyriakos Fountoukakos, Daniel Vowden, Daniel Barrio The EU Commission publishes the second annual report on the screening of foreign direct investment into the Union

91

On 1 September 2022, the European Commission (“Commission”) published the Second Annual Report on the screening of foreign direct investments (“FDI”) into the European Union (available here), and the accompanying Commission Staff Working Document (available here), pursuant to the annual reporting (...)

Kyriakos Fountoukakos, Daniel Vowden, Kristien Geeurickx The EU General Court endorses the Commission’s revised approach to review transactions below EU and national merger thresholds via Article 22 EUMR referrals (Illumina / GRAIL)

168

In its judgment of 13 July 2022 the General Court endorsed the EU Commission’s revised approach to Article 22 EU Merger Regulation (EUMR) referrals as set out in its March 2021 Guidance. The case relates to an appeal brought by Illumina against the Commission’s decision to accept the referral by (...)

Joseph Falcone, Kyriakos Fountoukakos, Daniel Vowden, Veronica Roberts The EU Commission issues Guidance on FDI from Russia and Belarus and calls for greater scrutiny due to increased risk of harm to security or public order

170

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 (...)

Kyriakos Fountoukakos, Daniel Vowden, Kristien Geeurickx, Marcel Nuys, Florian Huerkamp, Susan Black The EU Commission invites comments on its draft revised rules on horizontal cooperation agreements

669

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 (...)

Kyriakos Fountoukakos, Daniel Vowden, Yevgen Khodakovsky The EU Commission publishes its final report on a consumer Internet of Things sector inquiry which confirms its preliminary findings related to high entry barriers and issues around access to data

571

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 (...)

Kyriakos Fountoukakos, Daniel Vowden The EU Commission issues a Statement of Objections, pursuing interim measures on two pharmaceutical companies for the alleged violation of the standstill obligation (Illumina / GRAIL)

211

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 (...)

Kyriakos Fountoukakos, Florian Huerkamp, Kristien Geeurickx, Marcel Nuys, Daniel Vowden, Susan Black The EU Commission publishes drafts of revised Vertical Block Exemption Regulation and Vertical Guidelines

880

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 (...)

Daniel Vowden, Adrian Brown, Kyriakos Fountoukakos The EU Commission carries out its first dawn raid since the COVID-19 pandemic started at the German premises of a company active in the clothing sector

1532

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 (...)

Veronica Roberts, Daniel Vowden, Kristien Geeurickx The UK Competition Appeal Tribunal confirms the Competition Authority’s broad approach to the share of supply test resulting in the decision to block the merger between two software suppliers in a first case where the cartelist’s fine is reduced due to implementing a compliance program (Sabre / Farelogix)

241

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 (...)

Daniel Vowden, Adrian Brown The EU Commission imposes a fine of €371 million on banks implicated in supra-sovereign, sovereign and agency bond trading cartel (Bank of America / Natixis / RBS / UBS / UniCredit / WestLB)

302

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 (...)

Kyriakos Fountoukakos, Lode Van Den Hende, Daniel Vowden, Eric White, Adrian Brown, Morris Schonberg The EU Commission issues its regulatory proposal containing novel measures to tackle foreign subsidies distorting the EU market

336

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 (...)

Daniel Vowden, Adrian Brown The EU Commission imposes a fine of €28.5 million on banks implicated in European government bond trading cartel (Bank of America Merrill Lynch / Crédit Agricole / Crédit Suisse)

273

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 (...)

Marie Louvet, Alexis Baudelin, Daniel Vowden, Adrian Brown The French Constitutional Council declares article L.462-2 of the French Commercial Code on fines for obstruction of an antitrust investigation to be unconstitutional (Akka Technologies)

224

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 (...)

Marie Louvet, Alexis Baudelin, Daniel Vowden, Adrian Brown The French Competition Authority fines the three main national manufacturers of industrial sandwiches sold under a private label for having defined a common strategy when responding to calls for tender launched by large and medium-sized retailers (Roland Monterrat / La Toque Angevine / Daunat)

237

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 (...)

Daniel Vowden, Adrian Brown The EU Court of Justice partially annuls a judgment of the General Court reducing to €2.6 million the fine imposed on a company for its participation in the steel abrasives cartel (Pometon)

240

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 (...)

Francesca Morra, Daniel Vowden, Adrian Brown The Italian Highest Administrative Court refers to the EU Court of Justice an antitrust appeal questioning the Court’s jurisdiction and the validity of its revocation rules (Avastin / Lucentis)

237

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 (...)

Victoria Korotkova, Evgeny Yuriev, Daniel Vowden, Adrian Brown The Russian Supreme Court adopts a decree providing clarifications on antitrust matters that arise in court proceedings

237

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 (...)

Marie Louvet, Alexis Baudelin, Daniel Vowden, Adrian Brown The French Supreme Court confirms that to obtain a fine reduction in cartel cases companies must actively reject cartel participation (Goodmills Deutschland / Grands moulins de Paris)

240

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 (...)

Marcel Nuys, Florian Huerkamp, Daniel Vowden, Adrian Brown The Munich Regional Court grants an injunction regarding internet search cooperation between the Government and a Big Tech company as it constitutes a restriction on competition (Google / German Ministry of Health)

248

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 (...)

Kyriakos Fountoukakos, Daniel Vowden, Agathe Célarié The EU Court of Justice confirms the liability of a parent company for the conduct of its subsidiaries involved in a cartel (Goldman Sachs)

315

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 (...)

Marcel Nuys, Florian Huerkamp, Daniel Vowden, Adrian Brown The German Parliament sees its 10th amendment to the Act against Restraints on Competition enter into force bringing about substantial changes to the national cartel enforcement regime

233

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 (...)

Kyriakos Fountoukakos, Mark Jephcott, Veronica Roberts, Daniel Vowden, Kristien Geeurickx The UK Government and the EU Commission agree on a trade and cooperation act detailing the applicability of both merger control regimes after Brexit

174

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 (...)

Henar González Durántez, Pilar Carrasco, Daniel Vowden, Adrian Brown The Spanish National Court annuls the Competition Authority’s decision imposing fines on several companies for taking part in four cartels (Cementos)

47

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 (...)

Stephen Wisking, Daniel Vowden, Daniel Barrio, Agathe Célarié The EU Court of Justice annuls a Commission’s decision accepting legally binding commitments offered by a company aimed at addressing an investigation into cross-border pay-TV in the EU (Paramount / Sky / Groupe Canal +)

143

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 (...)

Daniel Vowden, Adrian Brown, Daniel Barrio The EU Commission fines ethylene purchasers in the chemical industry for participating in a cartel aimed at purchasing a product at the lowest possible price (Orbia / Clariant / Celanese / Westlake)

95

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 (...)

Stephen Wisking, Kyriakos Fountoukakos, Daniel Vowden, Juliana Penz-Evren The UK Competition Authority releases a market study on online platforms and digital advertising

168

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, (...)

Veronica Roberts, Daniel Vowden, Ruth Allen, Kristien Geeurickx The UK Competition Authority announces its provisional clearance of a proposed acquisition of a stake in a food delivery company in its first application of “failing firm” defence during the COVID-19 pandemic (Amazon / Deliveroo)

2073

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 (...)

Daniel Vowden, James Quinney The UK Office of Fair Trading concludes that asset acquisition in administration on proceedings does not qualify for merger investigation (Shell UK / Greenergy / Vopak Holding)

176

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. (...)

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