Industries

On April 17, 2019, the ICA found that 19 undertakings allegedly participated in a cartel that affected the outcome of the so-called “Facility Management 4” tender procedure, the biggest European public tender for the provision of cleaning and maintenance services for public offices ever to be launched in Italy (by Consip, the central purchasing agency owned by the Ministry for Economy and Finance).[1] The said tender was divided in 18 geographical lots and had a total value of approximately €2.7 billion.

On 17 April 2019, the High Court ruled on the extent to which factual findings of the General Court of the European Union are binding on claimants in follow-on damages actions before UK national courts. This case concerns damages claims against Servier, following the European Commission’s 2014 infringement decision, which found that Servier had abused a dominant position and entered ‘pay for delay’ agreements with rivals.

The French Competition Authority (the “FCA”) considered online and offline sales of toys as forming part of the same market in the context of its investigation of the merger of toy companies Luderix International and Jellej Jouets. The FCA thus relied once more on the methodology it applied in its Fnac/Darty merger clearance decision, when it concluded to the existence of a single market including both physical and online retail channels for the distribution of consumer electronics.

On April 11, 2019, the Federal Cartel Office (“FCO”) published its final report on its sector inquiry into comparison websites.[1] This inquiry marked the first time that the FCO had analyzed a sector on the basis of its consumer protection competencies that have only recently been created. It clearly emphasized the agency’s ambition to expand its enforcement authority also into this area. Overall, the FCO came to the conclusion that several comparison portals infringed consumer rights in particular by providing misleading or incomplete information to consumers.

On April 10, 2019, the Italian Competition Authority (“ICA”) levied a fine of € 1.1 million on SAD – Trasporto Locale S.p.A. (“SAD”), a company entrusted by the Autonomous Province of Bolzano (“APB”) with the provision of suburban public passenger land transport services in the Bolzano area, for an alleged infringement of Article 102 TFEU.[1] According to the ICA, SAD abused its dominant position on the local market for suburban public passenger land transport services, by refusing to provide the APB with information necessary to carry out a public tender procedure for the assignment of transport services in the Alto Adige region.

On April 9, 2019, the Commission published the Final Report of the Hearing Officer on procedural issues relating to its 2016 decision in the Euribor case, in which it fined Crédit Agricole, HSBC and JPMorgan Chase a total of €485 million for participating in a cartel in euro interest rate derivatives.

On April 8, 2019, the Commission fined General Electric (“GE”) €52 million for providing incorrect information during its 2017 investigation of GE’s acquisition of Danish wind turbine blade manufacturer LM Wind Power Holdings A/S (“LM Wind”).