On September 9, 2024, Mario Draghi, former President of the European Central Bank and former Italian Prime Minister, presented his report on the Future of European Competitiveness (the “Report”), with the objective to inform the work of the incoming Commission. Featured in President von der Leyen’s Political Guidelines issued in July,[2] and in several mission letters for the new Commissioners, the Report revived the debate concerning the competitiveness of EU companies in global markets.
On September 5, 2024, the European Commission (“Commission”) published a Staff Working Document[1] summarizing the outcome of an evaluation of Regulations 1/2003 and 77/2004, which govern the procedural framework for enforcing EU competition rules under Articles 101 and 102 TFEU (“EU Antitrust Enforcement Framework”). On the same day, the Commission adopted a report on the use of interim measures by National Competition Authorities (“NCAs”).[2]
In the latest instalment of Cleary Gottlieb’s Antitrust Review podcast, host Nick Levy is joined by Martijn Snoep, Chair of
In a decision dated July 24, 2024,[1] the Paris Court of Appeals granted a stay of execution in relation to a €2,700,000 fine imposed on the Association Nationale des Industries Alimentaires (“ANIA”) by the French Competition Authority (“FCA”) in the Bisphenol A case only considering the manifestly excessive consequences of such sanction in view of ANIA’s financial situation and without examining its merits.
In our latest installment, host Nick Levy is joined by Sir John Vickers, Warden of Oxford University’s All Souls College
The Digital Markets, Competition, and Consumers (DMCC) Act, which passed on 23 May 2024, will introduce significant reforms to UK competition and consumer protection law and digital regulation (see our update summarising the main changes). In this post, we’ll take a closer look at the Act’s overhaul of the UK consumer protection regime.
On June 10, 2024, the German Federal Cartel Office (“FCO”) imposed fines of almost €16 million on AVM Computersysteme Vertriebs GmbH (“AVM”) and one of its staff representatives for vertical price fixing (so-called Resale Price Maintenance or “RPM”) with six electronics retailers.[1]
On 23 May, the UK Parliament passed the Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers (DMCC) Bill. The new DMCC Act will bring about some of the most significant reforms to competition and consumer protection law in the UK in decades. Among other major reforms, it introduces a dedicated regime that provides for specific conduct rules for large digital platforms. The UK therefore becomes the fourth jurisdiction—after the EU with its Digital Market Act (DMA), Germany with its s.19A rules, and Japan with its new smartphone bill (also passed on 23 May)—to introduce rules that target a handful of the largest digital firms.[1]
U.S. based snacks company, Mondelēz, has been found to have engaged in 22 anti-competitive agreements or concerted practices by the Commission. The Commission also found that Mondelēz abused its dominant position in the market for the sale of certain types of chocolate bars in several countries. After a three-year investigation during which Mondelez followed the cooperation process, they have agreed to settle the investigation, with the Commission announcing a €337.5 million fine for hindering cross-border trade of chocolates, biscuits, and coffee products between Member States, in violation of EU competition rules.
On May 21, 2024, the French Competition Authority (the “FCA”) fined 11 companies active in the pre-cast concrete sector for having exchanged commercially sensitive information and implemented anticompetitive price fixing, customer allocation and bid rigging practices over seven to ten years (from 2008 or 2011 to 2017 or 2018 depending on the practices).[1] These practices were uncovered in the context of a criminal investigation carried out under the supervision of a criminal investigating judge (juge d’instruction). Fines ranged from €150,000 to €25.5 million, amounting to a total of approx. €76.6 million.