Rafael Allendesalazar is Managing Partner of MLAB Abogados, a firm he founded in 1985 with Santiago Martínez Lage. Over more than 30 years he has advised and represented numerous companies as well as public and private bodies, before competition authorities and before the Spanish and EU courts and tribunals in sectors such as consumer goods, professional associations, copyright collecting societies, energy, fuel distribution, telecommunications, media, automotive distribution, finance and credit cards, and the new digital platform economy. Rafael was also editor of the Gaceta Jurídica de la Unión Europea y de la Competencia (‘EU and Competition Law Gazette’) and is correspondent for the Chroniques section of Concurrences. He has published numerous articles relating to different aspects of the application of EU and Competition Law and regularly delivers classes and seminars at universities and other public and private institutions both in Spain and abroad. He has been President of the Spanish Association for the Defense of Competition.
324
Quo Vadis EU law on e-platforms ? A comment on the Advocate General’s Opinion in the Uber Spain Case. 1. Introduction : Background of the case In 2014, Uber launched its UberPOP service in Barcelona and Madrid. UberPOP enables users of Uber’s App to request a transport service from (...)
40
The Spanish Competition Authority (CNMC) has imposed a fine of €10.25 million on the Leadiant group (Essetifin SpA, Leadiant Biosciences Ltd and Leadiant GmbH, jointly referred as Leadiant) for abusing its dominant position as the marketer of the sole medicine available in Spain for the (...)
92
The Spanish competition authority (CNMC) has imposed a €38.93 million fine on pharmaceutical company Merck Sharp and Dohme (MSD) for abusing its dominant position in the market for contraceptive vaginal rings from June 2017 to April 2018 by means of unfounded legal actions intended to harass a (...)
161
The Audiencia Provincial de León has dismissed the appeals lodged by two truck manufacturers, Volvo and DAF Trucks, against a commercial court judgment which awarded damages amounting to €10,906 after the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) clarified the temporal application of the (...)
119
The Audiencia Nacional has annulled a decision of the Spanish competition authority (CNMC) fining the car wash equipment maker Istobal for refusing to cooperate with independent repairers of its machines –called SATs (technical assistance services)–, thus breaching Articles 1 and 2 of the Spanish (...)
283
The Spanish competition authority (CNMC) has imposed fines amounting to €203.6 million on the six main national construction companies (Acciona Construcción, Dragados, FCC Construcción, Ferrovial Construcción, Obrascón Huarte Lain and Sacyr Construcción) for manipulating public tenders to build (...)
96
The Audiencia Nacional has upheld the appeals filed by eleven concrete companies and a manager against a decision of the Spanish competition authority (CNMC) which sanctioned them for operating a cartel in the supply of concrete market in the Asturias region, thereby incurring a single and (...)
153
The Audiencia Nacional has annulled a decision of the Spanish competition authority (CNMC) fining two security companies and their managers for having agreed to share the Spanish cash-in-transit and cash-handling market, fix prices and exchange commercially sensitive information. Following an (...)
176
The Spanish Competition Authority (CNMC) has imposed on the renewable energy firm Enel Green Power S.L. (Enel Green) a EUR 4.9 million fine for abusing its dominant position in the market of access to the electrical transmission network, in particular, in two access nodes. The conduct (...)
124
The Provincial Court of Madrid (Audiencia Provincial de Madrid) has overturned a first instance judgment which ordered insurance companies Asefa, S.A. Compañía Española de Seguros y Reaseguros (Asefa) and Scor Global P&C, S.E (Scor) to pay EUR 2.6 million to the property developer Realia (...)
128
The Spanish Competition Authority (CNMC) has imposed on the kennel association Real Sociedad Canina de España (RSCE) a EUR 142,996 fine for deterring the activity of rival associations and discriminating canine judges. According to the CNMC, the conduct constitutes an abuse of dominant position (...)
98
The Audiencia Nacional has partially accepted the appeals brought by several Balearic transport operators, thus quashing a decision of the Spanish Competition Authority (CNMC) which imposed a fine on these companies for implementing a cartel in the market of school transport services. The (...)
126
The Spanish Competition Authority (CNMC) has imposed a EUR 24 million fine on three steel companies for constituting two cartels consisting of two exchanges of information between competitors, on the one hand between AG Siderúrgica Balboa, S.A. (BALBOA) and Sidenor Aceros Especiales, S.L.U. (...)
81
The Spanish Competition Authority (CNMC) has imposed on Sociedad Estatal Correos y Telégrafos, S.A., S.M.E. (CORREOS), the state-owned postal service provider in Spain, a EUR 32.6 million fine for the implementation of an anticompetitive discount scheme for large business customers. The conduct (...)
101
The Audiencia Nacional has accepted the appeals brought by four rail equipment companies and several individuals, thus quashing a decision of the Spanish Competition Authority (CNMC) which imposed a fine on these companies and individuals for rigging bids in tenders related to the construction (...)
116
L’autorité espagnole de la concurrence ["CNMC"] a infligé des amendes d’un montant de 1,25 million d’euros à sept courtiers immobiliers pour avoir imposé des honoraires minimums sur le marché du courtage immobilier. La CNMC a estimé que ces sociétés avaient conclu des accords de fixation des prix et (...)
90
L’ Audiencia Nacional a annulé les amendes infligées par une décision de 2016 de l’autorité espagnole de la concurrence [" CNMC "] qui a sanctionné six fabricants et fournisseurs de nougat espagnol (" turrón ") (Delaviuda, Almendra y Miel, Sanchís Mira, Turrones Picó, Enrique Garrigós Monerris et (...)
106
L’autorité espagnole de la concurrence ["CNMC"] a clôturé la procédure d’infraction ouverte à l’encontre d’EURO 6000 pour de potentielles restrictions du réseau ATM par des engagements (CNMC, décision du 2 novembre 2021, affaire S/0034/19 EURO 6000). La clôture d’une procédure d’infraction au moyen d’une (...)
82
The Spanish Competition Authority [“CNMC”] has imposed fines on 12 public works companies amounting to EUR 61.2 million for constituting a cartel that altered the results of tenders for the maintenance and operation services of the Spanish motorway network, between 2014 and 2018. The CNMC has, (...)
69
The Audiencia Nacional has dismissed the appeal filed by the state-owned railway operator Renfe against a decision of the Spanish Competition Authority [“CNMC”] as it considered that the two sanctions imposed on the appellant, for infringing Articles 1 and 2 of the Spanish Competition Act (...)
59
The Audiencia Nacional has upheld six out of seven appeals against a 2018 decision of the Spanish Competition Authority [“CNMC”], which sanctioned nine bar associations and imposed a total fine of EUR 1.455 million for the elaboration and distribution of legal fee scales, on the basis of an (...)
64
The Audiencia Nacional has confirmed the decisions adopted by the Spanish Competition Authority [“CNMC”] declaring that various Spanish bar associations had infringed Article 1 of the Spanish Competition Act [“LDC”] through the publication of recommended collective prices (Audiencia Nacional, (...)
90
The Audiencia Nacional has accepted the appeal brought by the Spanish Basketball Clubs Association ( Asociación de Clubs de Baloncesto or “ACB”) and has quashed a decision of the Spanish Competition Authority [“CNMC”], to impose a fine on the ACB for implementing agreements which imposed unequal, (...)
87
The Audiencia Nacional has upheld the appeal brought by several tobacco firms belonging to the Altadis group against the Investigation Order issued by the Competition Directorate [“CD”] of the Spanish Competition Authority [“CNMC”], thus annulling the dawn raid carried out at the premises of these (...)
66
The Spanish Competition Authority [“CNMC”] has fined the funeral services company Funespaña, a subsidiary of Mapfre, one of the main insurance group in Spain, for acquiring a local competitor in the Canary Islands (Funeraria Alianza Canaria) without prior notification (CNMC, Decision of 18 May (...)
71
The Spanish Competition Authority [“CNMC”] has fined 22 consulting services firms and several of their executives for implementing two cartels through two separate collaborative networks, between 2008 and 2018. The CNMC has also initiated proceedings to exclude most of these firms from taking (...)
111
On April 2021, the Spanish Royal Decree-Law 7/2021 [“RDL”] entered into force, transposing Directive 2019/1 [“the ECN+ Directive”] and thus modifying the Spanish Competition Act (Act 15/2007, on the Defence of Competition, LDC), Act 3/2013, on the creation of the National Commission for Markets and (...)
77
The Audiencia Nacional has rejected the appeals brought by 7 telecommunications and television operators against a decision of the Spanish Competition Authority [“CNMC”] of 2015 which approved the acquisition by Telefonica of the exclusive control of Distribuidora de Televisión Digital [“DTS”], (...)
123
In June 2019, following complaints filed by two dental chains—Dentoestetic Centro de Salud y Estética Dental (DENTIX) and Dental Global Management (iDENTAL)—the CNMC opened an investigation in order to determine whether, as a result of the growth of low-cost dental care clinics as alternatives to (...)
119
5162. Spain : The Spanish Competition Authority fines the two main suppliers of PET radiopharmaceuticals, in particular, 18F-FDG, a drug used in radiodiagnosis by positron emission tomography, as well as two of their managers, for sharing the market for supply contracts for this drug for at (...)
113
In September 2016, the Spanish competition authority (CNMC) sanctioned 23 companies operating in the cement and concrete manufacturing and sales sector for four different infringements of Article 1 of the Spanish Competition Act constituting a cartel. In the concrete market, the CNMC (...)
365
By Judgment of 9 October 2018, issued in appeal n° 4509/2017, the Supreme Court has confirmed the Judgment of 27 May 2017 of the Audiencia Nacional (appeal nº 263/16) which decided on the appeal by British Telecommunications, PLC and BT España Compañía De Servicios Globales De Telecomunicaciones, (...)
247
In a Judgement of 17 September 2018 (appeal n° 2922/2016), the Spanish Supreme Court has overturned the Judgement of 21 July 2016 of the Audiencia Nacional (appeal n° 482/2013) which had dismissed the appeal lodged by Repsol, S.A. against the decision of the former Spanish competition authority (...)
403
In March 2013 the Spanish Competition Authority (the “CNMC”) fined several paper envelope manufacturers for a single continuous infringement of Articles 101 TFEU and 1 of the Spanish Competition Act from 1977 to 2010 consisting of (i) price fixing and market sharing agreements regarding envelopes (...)
237
By Judgement of 24 July 2018, issued in appeal n° 2665/2016, the Supreme Court has confirmed the Judgement of 11 July 2016 of the Audiencia Nacional (appeal n° 343/14) deciding on the appeal by Nestlé España S.A. against the decision of the Council of the Spanish Competition Authority (the “CNMC”) (...)
146
Par décision du 7 mai 2018 adoptée dans l’affaire S/0584/16, Agences Médias, l’autorité espagnole de la concurrence (ci-après “CNMC”) a infligé aux agences Carat España SAU, Inteligencia y Media, Media Sapiens Spain SL et Persuade Comunicación SA des amendes dont le montant total avoisine 7 millions (...)
161
Par décision du 4 juillet 2013, l’Autorité espagnole de la concurrence (ci-après “CNMC”) imposa à l’association Club de variedades vegetales protegidas (ci-après “CVVP”) une sanction de 4 974 027 euros pour une infraction à l’article 1 de la Loi de Défense de la Concurrence (ci-après “LDC”) ainsi qu’à (...)
363
Par décision du 13 février 2018 adoptée dans l’affaire S/DC/0579/16, Instruments Dérivés Financiers, l’Autorité de la concurrence espagnole (ci-après “CNMC”) a sanctionné les banques Caixabank, Banco Santander, Banco Sabadell et BBVA avec des amendes pour un total de 91 millions d’euros pour une infraction (...)
387
Par décision du 7 février 2018 adoptée dans l’affaire S/DC/0604/17, Mediapro Fútbol, l’Autorité de la concurrence espagnole (ci-après “CNMC”) a imposé à Mediaproducción, S.L. (ci-après “Mediapro”), le principal détenteur et gestionnaire de droits de football en Espagne, certains engagements pour mettre fin à (...)
265
Par un arrêt du 5 février 2018, la Cour suprême espagnole a confirmé l’arrêt de l’Audiencia Nacional du 1er juillet 2015 (recours nº 118/2014) qui annula la décision de l’Autorité de la concurrence (ci-après “CNMC”) du 21 janvier 2014 (affaire S/0373/11, Correos 2) qui avait sanctionné Correos, l’opérateur (...)
146
Par un arrêt du 28 décembre de 2017 rendu dans le cadre du recours nº 93/2015 (un parmi une longue liste d’arrêts rendus le même jour, ainsi que d’autres rendus en janvier et février 2018), l’Audiencia Nacional a annulé la décision de l’Autorité de la concurrence espagnole (ci-après “CNMC”) du 8 janvier (...)
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