Industries

Between August 18 and August 23, the Council of State rejected the separate appeals filed by Babcock Mission Critical Services International S.A. (“Babcock International”), Heliwest S.r.l. (“Heliwest”), Elitellina S.r.l. (“Elitellina”), Eliossola S.r.l. (“Eliossola”) and Associazione Elicotteristica Italiana (“AEI” and, jointly with Babcock International, Heliwest, Elitellina and Eliossola, the “Parties”) against judgments issued by the Regional Administrative Tribunal of Lazio (“TAR Lazio”), which had confirmed a 2019 ICA decision.

On 18 August 2021, the CAT certified its first follow-on class action under the UK’s collective action regime. Walter Merricks’ application for certification was initially refused in 2017. But following appeals up to the Supreme Court, the CAT reconsidered his application in light of the now-established criteria for certification, as clarified by the Supreme Court in its 11 December 2020 judgment.[1] This article sets out the background to the CAT’s decision on remittal, summarises the CAT’s main findings, and provides observations on possible implications.

On July 30, 2021, the French Competition Authority (“FCA”) published its revised Fining Guidelines, which repealed and replaced the 2011 guidelines.[1] In June, the FCA had opened a public consultation on a draft, which provided for different changes of the method of calculation of fines. While the Guidelines as published have retained those changes, they also include several more minor ones resulting from the public consultation.

On July 29, 2021, the German Federal Cartel Office (“FCO”) published the results of its sector inquiry into mobile apps,[1] finding severe deficiencies regarding the information provided to app users and apps’ compliance with data protection law.  The FCO recommends app publishers and app store operators should increase transparency and requests increased private enforcement and more enforcement by data protection authorities.

On 23 July 2021 the CMA published its final report in its market study into the supply of charging for electric vehicles (“EVs”). The study raises concerns that the rollout of charging points has been slow and disjointed, warning that more needs to be done in the sector ahead of the government’s planned ban on sales of new petrol and diesel cars by 2030.

On July 22, 2021, the TAR Lazio dismissed in full the applications filed by Coopservice s.coop.p.a. (“Coopservice”), Allsystem s.p.a. (“Allsystem”), Istituti di Vigilanza Riuniti s.p.a. (“IVRI”) and its parent company Biks Group s.p.a. (“Biks”), Italpol Vigilanza s.r.l. (“Italpol”) and its parent company MC Holding s.r.l. (“MC Holding”), as well as Sicuritalia s.p.a. (“Sicuritalia”) and its parent company Lomafin SGH s.p.a. (“Lomafin”; collectively, the “Parties”) for annulment of the 2019 decision adopted by the ICA in Case I821 (the “Decision”).[1]