Industries

On July 8, 2020, the Dortmund Regional Court for the first time considered a group liability of all companies forming an economic unit for cartel damages.[1]  The court concluded—in line with the Court of Justice of the European Union’s (“CJEU”) recent case law—that the broader notion of an “undertaking” (in the sense of the economic unit) under EU law also applies in damages actions under national law.

On July 6, 2020, the FCO approved the acquisition of online dating platform provider The Meet Group Inc. (USA), active on the German market through its mobile dating app Lovoo GmbH (“Lovoo”), by the ProSiebenSat.1 Media SE (“ProSiebenSat.1”) group, which owns online dating platforms from Parship and Elite Partner.[1]

On June 26, 2020, the Commission opened a public consultation on the 1997 Market Definition Notice (the “Notice”), which sets out the Commission’s formal guidance on the definition of the relevant product and geographic market in competition cases.[1] Until October 9, 2020, anyone interested may visit the Commission’s website (here) and submit comments and respond to the Commission’s questionnaire about the relevance, effectiveness, efficiency, coherence, and value of the Notice as a guidance instrument.

On June 23, 2020, the Federal Court of Justice (“FCJ”) overturned the Düsseldorf Court of Appeals’ (“DCA”) interim decision and rejected Facebook Inc.’s (“Facebook”) request to suspend the enforceability of the Federal Cartel Office’s (“FCO”) prohibition decision.[1] The FCJ disagreed with the FCO’s determination of an abuse based on a violation of data protection law, but instead examined Facebook’s data usage exclusively under competition law.

On June 17, 2020, the Paris Court of Appeals (“the Court”) ordered Orange and its subsidiary Orange Caraïbe to pay (jointly and severally) €181.5 million in antitrust damages and €68 million in interest to rival Digicel (formerly Bouygues Telecom Caraïbe) as compensation for the Orange group’s anti-competitive behavior across several markets in the French West Indies.[1] The Court’s decision overturns a 2017 first instance ruling by the Paris Commercial Court.[2]

On June 16, 2020, the Commission launched four formal investigations into Apple’s business practices. Three of the investigations seem to follow the same theory of harm and zero in on contract terms that Apple imposes on developers wishing to distribute apps through the App Store on Apple devices, and whether Apple has been using those terms to disadvantage app developers that compete against Apple’s own apps.[1]

On June 8, 2020, the Commission published its decision to fine U.S. based chipset producer Qualcomm a total of €997 million for abusing its dominant position by offering payments to Apple under the condition that Apple purchases from Qualcomm all LTE chipsets for iPhones and iPads.[1] This is the first time the Commission issued a decision on exclusivity payments since the Court of Justice’s ground-breaking Intel judgment in 2017.[2] Qualcomm’s appeal against the decision is pending before the General Court.[3]