On October 3, 2022, the Commission adopted a Revised Informal Guidance Notice on the application of Articles 101 and 102 TFEU to novel or unresolved competition law questions.[1] The Revised Informal Guidance Notice gives the Commission more flexibility in issuing informal advice compared to the 2004 guidance.[2]
On September 26, 2022, the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Climate Action published a draft of the Competition Enforcement Act which will amend the German Act Against Restraints of Competition (“ARC”) for the 11th time (“Draft 11th Amendment”).[1] The aim of the Draft 11th Amendment is to strengthen the Federal Cartel Office’s (“FCO”) enforcement powers beyond the existing enforcement of antitrust and abuse of dominance violations.
On September 29, 2022, the Commission adopted its Guidelines on the application of Union competition law to collective agreements regarding the working conditions of solo self-employed persons (“Guidelines”).[1] The Guidelines represent a part of a bigger push by the Commission to improve working conditions in platform work in the EU.[2]
On August 26, 2022, the Commission published the results of an external market study on the distribution practices of hotels in the EU, with a particular focus on parity clauses.[1] The study was conducted in 2021, after several years of close scrutiny by national competition authorities,[2] as well as the introduction of national legislation restricting the use of such clauses in several Member States.[3]
In the second episode of Cleary Gottlieb’s Antitrust Review podcast, a panel of Cleary Gottlieb partners discuss the achievements to
On August 5, 2022, the Italian Parliament adopted Law No. 118, the “2021 Annual Competition Law” (the “ACL”). The ACL, which will enter into force on August 27, 2022, amends the Italian Competition Law (Law No. 287/90) in various respects.
Cleary Gottlieb partners Nicholas Levy, Paul Gilbert, and Jackie Holland and associate Courtney Olden co-authored the “UK” chapter of the
In a significant judgment rendered on July 13, 2022 (“Judgment”), the EU’s General Court validated the position taken by the European Commission (“EC”) in a March 2021 Guidance Paper encouraging national competition authorities (“NCAs”) to use Article 22 of the EU Merger Regulation (“EUMR”) to refer transactions to the EC that do not meet national merger control thresholds, but which they believe may threaten to significantly affect competition within the EU.
On 30 June 2022, the EU institutions reached political agreement on a new regulation which will allow the European Commission to control non-EU government subsidies given to businesses active in the EU (the “Regulation”).