Bird & Bird (Copenhagen)

Morten Nissen

Bird & Bird (Copenhagen)
Partner

Morten Nissen is a partner and co-head of the international Competition & EU group at Bird & Bird, based in Copenhagen. He also leads the Competition & EU team in Denmark. He has a particular focus on applying competition & EU law as a tool to achieve specific and measurable business objectives for clients. Competition authorities act differently in different countries. He has solid international experience and an outlook based on working for more than 12 years as a lawyer based in Brussels, which includes doing a number of fascinating competition cases in many countries across Europe as well as Asia. This first-hand experience helps him better navigate cases to obtain results that make a difference. His prime focus is on state aid, competition restricting agreements, and abuse of dominance. I have made numerous EU and national merger control notifications, and he is always focused on optimising the business outcome and delivering competitive advantage. He is proud to say he has been involved in a high number of cases that made new case law. His sector experience is particularly strong in the pharmaceutical, copyright, media, IT, telecoms, passenger transport and international payment systems sectors. Over the years, he has represented clients in a large number of legal procedures before the EU Court of Justice in Luxembourg. Amongst these, he has won four appeal cases against the EU Commission, including a state aid case before the Grand Chamber of the EU court of justice which ultimately led to the EU Commission’s Legal Service turning around and choosing him to represent the Commission in a number of other state aid cases. Until 2012, he was a partner in the Brussels office. He left Bird & Bird to start a pharmaceutical business and other start-ups. After this, he was Of Counsel at a leading Danish firm, before finding his way home to Bird & Bird in 2018. At Bird & Bird, he benefits from a truly international set-up and he has a personal network that allows him to know exactly who is well placed to handle a particular case in one of many offices around the word. It particularly allows him to pull in points of view from a high-quality pool of 65 competition lawyers around the world. He is a member of the World Competition, Law and Economics Journals Advisory Board (Kluwer) and co-authored ’Guide to EU Pharmaceutical Regulatory Law’ (Kluwer).

Distinctions

Auteurs associés

Bird & Bird (Helsinki)
Bird & Bird (Warsaw)
Bird & Bird (Rome)
Bird & Bird (Budapest)
Bird & Bird (Sydney)

Vidéos

"Badmouthing Your Competitor's Products : When Does Denigration Become an Antitrust Issue ?" (Business | Unilateral Conduct | AWA 2021)
Morten Nissen 30 juin 2021 Webinar

Articles

8333 Bulletin

Morten Nissen, Alexander Brøchner The Danish Competition Authority finds that an association of car dealers infringed Article 6 of the Competition Act and Article 101(1) TFEU by engaging in a collective boycott of a platform for advertisement and sale of cars (Danish Association for sale of Peugeot Cars)

43

The Danish Competition Council (“the DCC”) has, in a recent decision, found that the Danish Association of Peugeot Dealers infringed Article 6 of the Danish Competition Act and Article 101(1) TFEU by engaging in a collective boycott of the Danish platform for advertisement and sale of cars, (...)

Alexander Brøchner, Morten Nissen The Swedish Competition Authority closes its investigation on possible anticompetitive conduct in the paint industry and highlights how crucial it is that participants react quickly if any information that may potentially be considered anticompetitive is exchanged

176

A recent investigation by the Swedish Competition Authority (“SCA”) into discussions in a trade forum demonstrates that it is crucial that participants react quickly if any information that may potentially be considered anti-competitive is exchanged. The SCA investigated whether companies (...)

Pauline Kuipers, Morten Nissen, Alexander Brøchner, Joost van Roosmalen Block exemption regulations : An overview of EU and national case law

2390

Competition law contains wide-ranging prohibitions against anticompetitive issues when companies enter into agreements with either competitors, suppliers or distributors. The content of the prohibitions has developed in 60+ years of case law and is backed up by competition authorities having the authority to carry out intrusive investigations and imposing fines. Navigating these prohibitions can sometimes be difficult and involve substantial assessment and judgment calls. It is up to companies to self-assess their agreements to ensure compliance. Block exemption regulations (or in short ‘block exemptions’) are amongst the most used EU antitrust tools in day to day operations for competition law advisors, both in private practice and in companies. Block exemptions play an important role in ensuring inter alia consistency and legal certainty in (self) assessing a range of common commercial actions when dealing with e.g. competitors, suppliers and distributors. Without block exemptions, it would be much more complex for companies to assess, whether many of their commonly occurring activities entail any risk of constituting infringements of competition law.

Morten Nissen, Frederik Haugsted The Danish Competition Appeals Tribunal upholds a decision by the Competition Authority against the biggest distributor of unaddressed mail for abuse of dominant position by tying its sale of print circulars with its sale of viewing of circulars on several of its digital platforms (FK Distribution)

287

On the 27th April 2021, the Danish Competition Appeals Tribunal (“DCAT”) upheld a June 2020 decision by the Danish Competition Council (“DCC”). The DCC concluded that FK Distribution (FK), as the biggest distributor of unaddressed mail (print circulars) in Denmark, had abused its dominant (...)

Morten Nissen, Alexander Brøchner The Danish High Court founds that the agreement fixing the price of subscriptions concluded by a natural gas company had an anticompetitive intent and breached the Competition Act (Hovedstadsregionens og Midt-Nords Naturgasselskab I/S)

353

The Danish High Court has affirmed that Article 6(1) of the Danish Competition Act (corresponding to Article 101(1) TFEU), was infringed by a natural gas company, Hovedstadsregionens og Midt-Nords Naturgasselskab I/S (“HMN”), the trade association and two subcontractors, as these parties (...)

Morten Nissen, Alexander Brøchner The Swedish Competition Authority publishes a report which covers the increasing influence of digital platforms within the field of competition law

452

In February 2021 the Swedish Competition Authority (“SCA”) published a report which covers the increasing influence of digital platforms within the field of competition law. Themes of the report In its report, the SCA has analysed five markets along with the SCA´s previous decisional (...)

Morten Nissen, Frederik Haugsted The Danish Maritime and Commercial High Court upholds the Competition Authority’s decision finding an abuse of dominance and an anti-competitive agreement between a German internal combustion engine manufacturer and its national distributor in the railway sector (Deutz / Diesel Motor Nordic)

242

The case centred around a consortium that was handling the renovation of the engines of the IC3 trains of the Danish State Railways. A member of the consortium, Fleco ApS (Fleco), was in several ways restricted from buying spare parts to be used in the renovation of the train engines. The (...)

Alexander Brøchner, Morten Nissen The Danish Competition Appeal Tribunal establishes that public contracting authorities are obliged to exclude tender constellations which are considered to be in breach of competition law (Peak Consulting Group)

132

The Danish Complaints Board for Public Procurement (“Board of Appeal”) has in a recent decision established that a consortium agreement which is in breach of Article 101 TFEU or Article 6 in the Danish Competition Act will be invalid, thus also making the bid and any contracts engaged in by (...)

Alexander Brøchner, Morten Nissen The Danish Government proposes a new competition act entailing several extensive and intrusive changes to the current one as part of implementing the ECN+ Directive

170

As a part of the implementation of the ECN+ Directive, a new competition act has been proposed by the Danish Government. The proposed competition act entails several extensive and intrusive changes to the current competition act. Accordingly, companies should be aware that these amendments (...)

Morten Nissen, Frederik Haugsted The Nordic Competition Authorities release a joint memorandum on digital platforms and the future of European policy on issues of competition in digital markets

98

In order to contribute to the ongoing policy discussion on the challenges following the rise of digital technologies, the Nordic competition authorities have published a memorandum entitled “Digital platforms and the potential changes to competition law at the European level”. The aim of the (...)

Frederik Haugsted, Morten Nissen The Danish Competition Authority accepts commitments from a digital platform to remove a mandatory minimum hourly fee for regular cleaning services providers on the platform (Hilfr)

96

A Danish digital platform facilitating contact between providers of cleaning services and customers, www.hilfr.dk (‘Hilfr’), operated with a minimum hourly fee as a prerequisite for the providers to offer their services on the platform. The providers of cleaning services using Hilfr are (...)

Frederik Haugsted, Morten Nissen The Danish Competition Authority conditionally clears an acquisition in the natural gas sector subject to the divestment of 107,000 consumers (SEAS-NVE / Ørsted)

62

On 28 May 2020, the Danish Competition and Consumer Authority (DCCA) received a complete notification of SEAS-NVE A/S’ (SEAS-NVE) acquisition of control of several subsidiaries of Ørsted A/S. Based on an overall assessment, the DCCA assessed that the merger would give rise to unilateral (...)

Morten Nissen, Frederik Haugsted The Danish Competition Authority requests a referral to the EU Commission for a proposed acquisition between two financial services companies on the basis that the merger might affect markets in other member states (Mastercard / Nets)

64

The Danish Competition and Consumer Authority ("DCCA") has for the first time ever requested a referral of a merger to the European Commission under Article 22(1) of the EU Merger Regulation. The referral concerns the proposed acquisition by Mastercard/Europay U.K Limited of certain parts of (...)

Morten Nissen, Frederik Haugsted The Danish High Court finds two companies guilty of exchanging prices and coordinating tenders on several construction contracts (Jorton / Skjøde Knudsen)

93

On 7 January 2020, the Danish High Court (“High Court”) found the two construction groups, Jorton A/S and H. Skjøde Knudsen A/S, guilty of having infringed the Danish Competition Act by exchanging prices and coordinating tenders on several construction contracts. The High Court found that (...)

Morten Nissen, Frederik Haugsted The Danish Supreme Court rules against two major road marking undertakings for submitting a joint bid with the object of restricting competition (Road Marking Case)

133

On 27 November 2019, the Danish Supreme Court delivered its judgment in the expected ’’Road marking case’’, deciding that two undertakings had infringed the Danish Competition Act by submitting joint bids for a project for the Danish Road Directorate in 2014. In February 2014, the Danish (...)

Morten Nissen, Frederik Haugsted The Danish Maritime and Commercial Court rules against two companies for entering into an anticompetitive agreement for the purchase and sale of the distribution of unaddressed mail (Mediacenter)

61

On 21 October 2019, the Danish Maritime and Commercial Court found two Danish companies, Mediacenter Danmark and MPE Distribution, guilty of having entered into an anticompetitive agreement to share customers on the market for the purchase and sale of the distribution of unaddressed mail. It (...)

Morten Nissen, Frederik Haugsted The Danish Competition Authority acquits two companies of illegally coordinating prices in the delivery of workwear (Bjerregaard Sikkerhed / Bacher Logistics)

46

On the 24th of September 2019, two Danish companies Bjerregaard Sikkerhed A/S and Bacher Logistics A/S were acquitted by the Danish Competition Authority (DCCA) of illegally coordinating prices and other terms. The case stems from an interministerial procurement of five framework agreements (...)

Morten Nissen, Frederik Haugsted The Danish Competition Authority fines the national oil and petrol service station company for failure to notify an acquisition as required under the merger control rules (Circle K)

62

On 26 June 2019, the Danish Competition and Consumer Authority ("CCA") announced that the Danish oil and petrol service station company Circle K Denmark A/S accepted to pay a fine of DKK 6.000.000 (EUR 800.000) for failure to notify an acquisition as required under the merger control rules in (...)

Morten Nissen, Frederik Haugsted The Danish Maritime and Commercial Court finds that a price coordination agreement between companies and a trade organization in the gas market restricted competition (HMN)

64

On 12 June 2019, the Danish Maritime and Commercial Court found that a price coordination agreement between HMN Naturgas I/S, its two sub-contractors and a trade organisation had the object of restricting competition. HMN is a municipally owned natural gas undertaking that offers a (...)

Morten Nissen, Frederik Haugsted The Danish Competition Authority announces that 45 retail and online stores received injections to remove all illegal payment-card fees that were being charged to consumers

99

On 5 April 2019, the Danish Competition and Consumer Authority ("Authority") announced that 45 retail and online stores (including pharmacies, shops, cafés, restaurants and online stores) have received injunctions from the Authority to remove all illegal payment-card fees they were charging (...)

Morten Nissen, Frederik Haugsted The Danish Competition Authority finds that a company abused its dominant position by excluding a competitor from the market for ambulance services (Falck / BIOS)

75

On 30 January 2019, the Danish Competition Council ("DCC") established that Falck abused its dominant position (Danish Competition Act § 11 - Article 102 TFEU), by excluding the Dutch company BIOS from the Danish market for ambulance services. Falck is the largest provider of ambulance (...)

Livres

Statistiques


8333
Total des visites

231.5
Nombre de lectures par contribution

36
Nombre de contributions

Classement de l'auteur
262ème
En nombre de contributions
1190ème
En nombre total de visites
6261ème
En nombre moyen de visites
Envoyer un message