In a judgment delivered on November 18, 2022 (the “Judgment”),[1] the Council of State partially upheld an appeal against a judgment of the Regional Administrative Tribunal of Lazio (the “TAR Lazio”) that had confirmed an ICA decision imposing a €2,817,890 fine on a company (MS) for an anticompetitive agreement in the corrugated cardboard packaging market (the “Decision”).[2] The Judgment is the first to be delivered in as many as 25 parallel appeals against the Decision.
On November 15, 2022, the French Competition Authority (“FCA”) imposed a fine of 800,000 euros on Audiens Santé-Prévoyance (“Audiens SP”) for abuse of dominance through its subsidiary, Movinmotion, on the market for payroll management services for entertainment workers (the “Decision”).[1]
On November 10, 2022, in a judgment on a request for a preliminary ruling on the interpretation of Article 5(1) of Directive 2014/104 (the “Damages Directive”) and the scope of its rules on evidence production, the Court of Justice confirmed that national courts could require defendants to disclose evidence that did not exist at the time of the court proceedings (“ex novo evidence”)— by compiling or classifying knowledge, information or data in their possession— rather than to merely produce documents that already exist.[1] In this instance, the applicants were seeking price data to quantify the artificial price increase caused by a cartel. The Court of Justice considered that the need to ensure the effective implementation of EU competition law could justify this interpretation, provided that national courts limited disclosure of ex novo evidence to necessary and proportionate requests. This ruling will increase the burden of follow-on litigation on companies and, in particular, the time and costs of carrying out disclosure.
On November 8, 2022, the Commission published its draft Revised Market Definition Notice (the “Revised Notice”) for consultation in view of a formal adoption in the third quarter of 2023.[1] The revision of the current 1997 Market Definition Notice (the “Original Notice”) was initiated in April 2020, with a particular focus on improved analysis of global and digital markets.[2] In addition to guidance on these issues, the Revised Notice largely confirms the principles set in the Original Notice, integrates as additional background recent EU decisional practice and preserves the Commission’s margin of discretion in market definition assessments.
On November 8, 2022, the Court of Justice set aside the General Court’s judgment in the Fiat State aid case.[1] In doing so, the Court of Justice effectively annulled the Commission decision which found that the tax ruling granted to the Fiat Chrysler group by the tax authorities of Luxembourg was an unlawful tax break of €20–30 million.[2] The Court of Justice affirmed the supremacy of national law in corporate taxation and rejected the Commission’s attempt to develop an EU-wide arm’s length principle as a standard of review for Member States’ tax decisions under State aid rules. The judgment is a setback for the Commission’s policy of using State aid rules to target allegedly unfair tax deals for multinational companies.
In the latest episode of Cleary Gottlieb’s Antitrust Review podcast, a panel of Cleary Gottlieb experts unpack the EU’s landmark Digital Markets Act, explaining its scope and implications for the world’s leading digital platforms.
On December 6, 2022, the French Competition Authority (“FCA”) issued a decision rejecting TDF’s request to lift the commitments it had entered into in 2015 regarding abuse of dominance practices on the market for hosting mobile network antennas on pylon sites (the “Decision”).[1] The FCA rejected this request due to lack of evidence that the competition concerns identified in 2015 have disappeared.
After publishing its preliminary finding in February 2022[1], the German Federal Cartel Office (“FCO”) recently prohibited the Deutsche Lufthansa AG group (“Lufthansa”) from terminating longstanding cooperation agreements with Condor Flugdienst GmbH (“Condor”).[2] Under the cooperation agreements, Lufthansa is obliged to provide feeder flights to Condor’s long-haul passengers.
In this episode of Cleary Gottlieb’s Antitrust Review podcast, host Nick Levy is joined by Olivier Guersent, Director-General of the EC’s Directorate-General for Competition.
On October 27, 2022, the Digital Services Act (“DSA”) was published in the Official Journal of the EU, marking its formal adoption.[1] The DSA sets out new rules that apply to the distribution of user-generated online content. Unlike the DMA, which seeks to ensure the contestability of digital markets, the DSA seeks to improve user safety online and ensure accountability of platforms for the content that they transmit, host or publicly disseminate.