Industries

On August 12, 2019, the FCA approved, subject to remedies, the creation of TV platform Salto by TF1, France Télévisions (“FTV”), and Métropole Télévision (“M6”) following a referral by the European Commission. Salto is intended to offer television services, including free-to-air digital terrestrial television (“DTT”) channels and related (e.g. catch-up TV) services and functionalities, together with subscription video on-demand services. Salto’s offering will be distributed directly over the internet (known as “over-the-top” or “OTT”).

On July 31, 2019, the ICA issued a decision stating that Ferrovie dello Stato Italiane S.p.A. (“FS”), Rete Ferroviaria Italiana S.p.A. (“RFI”) and Trenitalia S.p.A. (“Trenitalia”) had abused their dominant position in the markets for rail infrastructure management and regional rail passenger transportation services in Veneto (the “Decision”).[1] However, the ICA imposed on the firms concerned a symbolic fine of only €1,000, taking into account the fact that the contested practices would ultimately lead to improvements and innovation in the railway infrastructure.

On July 30, 2019, the Milan Court of Appeal (the “Court of Appeal”) fully upheld a ruling of the Milan Court finding that Società per Azioni Servizi Aeroportuali (“SEA”) and Aeroporti di Roma (“ADR”) had put in place several anticompetitive practices in violation of Articles 101 and 102 TFEU.[1]

On July 29, 2019, the Court of Justice confirmed that the Hungarian courts had jurisdiction to rule on damages claims brought by Tibor-Trans Fuvarozó és Kereskedelmi Kft. (“Tibor-Trans”), a Hungarian logistics company, against DAF Trucks N.V. (“DAF”), one of the members of the EU-wide trucks cartel.[1] The Court of Justice clarified that cartel victims may claim damages in any Member State affected by a cartel, even where they had no direct contractual relationship with the cartelists.

On July 24, 2019, the Italian Competition Authority (the “ICA”) issued a decision[1] (the “Decision”) finding that the Milan Notarial Board had violated Article 2 of Law No. 287/90 (the “MNB”). According to the ICA, the MNB allegedly collected disaggregated data on the performance of notaries in the Milan district in order to monitor their economic activity and discourage aggressive competition. However, the anticompetitive use of the data stopped when the ICA started the proceedings and, thus, the cartel did not have any anticompetitive effect. As a consequence, the ICA did not impose a fine.