Industries

On November 3, 2019, the Commission opened a formal investigation of potential anticompetitive coordination between two French supermarket chains, Casino and Intermarché. The Commission suspects that the parties’ 2014 joint purchasing alliance, Intermarché-Casino Achats, might have led to them colluding in certain downstream markets, in particular on the development of shop networks and consumer pricing.[1] The Commission’s decision to open an investigation follows the dawn raids that it carried out in May 2019 in cooperation with the French Competition Authority, as reported in our May EU Competition Law Newsletter.

In November 2019, the Court of Justice issued judgments in four cases arising out of the Commission’s 2014 decision in Power Cables. In the decision, the Commission found several European, Japanese, and Korean high-voltage power cables producers to have engaged in a cartel and imposed fines totaling €302 million.[1] The scope of the infringement included both the power cables and their accessories. Most of the addressees challenged the decision in the General Court, in each case unsuccessfully, and subsequently in the Court of Justice. This month, the Court of Justice rendered judgments on the appeals filed by ABB Ltd and ABB AB (“ABB”), Silec, Brugg Kabel, and LS Cable, partially upholding ABB’s appeal while dismissing the other three appeals.[2]

On October 30, 2019, the Commission published its July 2019 decision to conditionally approve the acquisition by Vodafone of Liberty Global’s cable business in Germany, the Czech Republic, Hungary, and Romania, following an in-depth Phase II investigation.[1] The decision marks the first-ever cable access commitment approved by the Commission in the telecommunications sector.

On October 29, 2019, the Italian Competition Authority (the “ICA”) issued a decision (the “Decision”)[1] imposing interim measures on the Italian Consortium for the Collection, Recycling and Recovery of Plastic Packaging (“COREPLA”) in the framework of the investigation it opened six months earlier into COREPLA’s alleged abuse of dominant position in the market for management of plastic waste recycling services. According to the ICA, the interim measures will prevent serious and irreparable harm to competition likely to be caused by COREPLA’s conduct, which prima facie constitutes an infringement of Article 102 TFEU.

On October 22, 2019, the Commission published its decision to fine Canon a total of €28 million for failure to file its acquisition of Toshiba Medical Systems Corporation (“TMSC”).[1] Canon acquired TMSC via a warehousing arrangement, which involved a special purpose vehicle (“SPV”) that held most of TMSC’s shares pending merger control approval.

On October 17, 2019, the Court of Justice upheld the General Court’s judgment of April 10, 2018, dismissing ethanol producer Alcogroup’s appeal against a Commission decision to carry out a dawn raid during which the Commission allegedly read potentially legally privileged documents.[1] According to the Court of Justice, irregularities during a dawn raid may only result in the annulment of subsequent Commission decisions and not the prior decision authorizing the dawn raid in question. This judgment highlights the need for legal counsel to closely monitor dawn raids, to ensure that Commission officials do not read or seize legally privileged documents.