Industries

On March 4, 2020, the Court of Justice dismissed Mowi ASA (formerly Marine Harvest ASA)’s appeal against two fines for having acquired control over salmon producer Morpol prior to the European Commission’s (the “Commission”) merger control approval.[1] The judgment clarifies the scope of Article 7(2) of the EU Merger Regulation (the “EUMR”), which allows an acquisition of control to be notified after the fact, if it takes place in the context of a public bid. The judgment explains that the exemption does not apply if the public bid follows an initial, separate, transaction which already gave rise to an acquisition of control. The judgment also confirms that the Commission is allowed to impose two separate fines when a transaction is implemented before the merger notification. This article updates our analysis of the General Court judgment as reported in our European Competition Report of Q 4, 2017.

On March 3, 2020, the TAR Lazio rejected the appeal brought by Open Fiber S.p.A. (“Open Fiber”, an operator active in the development of optical fiber networks based on the Fiber to the Home technology) for the annulment of the commitment decision adopted by the ICA in proceedings against Telecom Italia S.p.A. (“TIM”) and Fastweb S.p.A. (“Fastweb”), concerning the markets for wholesale access to the fixed network and fixed broadband and ultra- wideband retail telecommunications services.[1]

On March 3, 2020, the Council of State granted the appeal filed by Società Cooperativa Taxi Torino (“Taxi Torino”) against the judgment issued by the Regional Administrative Tribunal for Latium (the “TAR Lazio”) on June 7, 2019.[1] The TAR Lazio had upheld the ICA decision of November 29, 2018, which imposed interim measures in an investigation concerning an alleged abuse in the market for the collection and sorting of orders for taxi services in Turin.[2]

On March 2, 2020, after an in-depth investigation, the FCO approved cinema operator Vue Nederland B.V. (“Vue Group”)’s acquisition of its competitor Edge Investments B.V., 2015 First Holding GmbH, and Greater Union International GmbH. [1] The approval is subject to the divestment of cinemas in six regions. The Vue Group operates 31 cinemas in Germany, 30 under the brand “CinemaxX”. The targets operate 53 cinemas in Germany, 51 under the brand “Cinestar”.

The COVID-19 pandemic has caused significant economic disruption, including supply shortages, cost increases, and liquidity constraints resulting from a prolonged shutdown. As EU Member States and businesses respond to these challenges, and even as lockdown measures are gradually eased, their actions continue to raise potential issues under competition law.