Industries

On July 18, 2019, the Commission fined Qualcomm €242 million for abusing its dominance in the global market for broadband chipsets by selling below cost to “strategically important” customers, to force a competitor out of the market.[1] This is the first time in 16 years that the Commission has fined a company for predatory pricing after the Wanadoo decision of 2003.[2]

On July 18, 2019, the Commission conditionally approved Vodafone’s acquisition of Liberty Global’s cable networks business in Czech Republic, Hungary, Romania, and Germany, following a Phase II review.[1] This case is the latest in a wave of consolidation across the EEA’s telecommunications sector (such as Liberty Global/Ziggo, Vodafone/Liberty Global/Dutch JV, and Altice/PT Portugal).[2]

On July 17, 2019, the Italian Competition Authority (the “ICA”) imposed fines in excess of €287 million on 23 companies for two distinct anticompetitive agreements in breach of Article 101 TFEU (the “Decision” and the “Infringements”, respectively).[1] According to the ICA, the two cartels were implemented in two different markets which were vertically related to each other, namely the upstream market for corrugated cardboard sheets (the “Sheets Cartel”) and the downstream market for corrugated cardboard cases (the “Cases Cartel”). The Infringements allegedly also involved the relevant trade association Gruppo Italiano Fabbricanti Cartone Ondulato (“GIFCO”).

On July 17, 2019, the FCO terminated its abuse proceedings into Amazon.com, Inc.’s (“Amazon”) German online marketplace, Amazon.de, after Amazon had committed to making several changes to its business terms towards sellers on its marketplace. The commitments apply not only to Amazon’s business terms in Germany, but also worldwide on all its marketplaces.[1]

On July 15, 2019, the Council of State rejected an appeal filed by F. Hoffmann-La Roche LTD and Roche S.p.A. (“Roche”), as well as Novartis Farma S.p.A. and Novartis AG (“Novartis”; jointly, the “Parties”) against a judgment issued in 2014 by the Regional Administrative Tribunal for Latium (the “TAR Lazio”).[1] As a consequence, the 2014 decision by which the ICA fined the Parties approximately €180 million overall for a violation of Article 101 TFEU (the “Decision”)[2] became final. According to the Decision, the Parties colluded with a view to creating an artificial differentiation between two medicinal products that were equivalent for the treatment of eye diseases, in order to increase sales of the more expensive one.

On July 15, 2019, the Commission published its annual report on competition policy, setting out the Commission’s main policy and legislative initiatives, and key decisions adopted in 2018.

On July 12, 2019, the General Court rejected five appeals against a 2015 Commission decision imposing a total fine of €116 million on five cartel participants for colluding to rig optical disc drive (“ODD”) procurement tenders organized by Dell and Hewlett-Packard (“HP”).[1] The judgment serves as a reminder of the discretion the Commission enjoys when imposing cartel fines, and the General Court’s tendency to defer to the Commission’s cartel policy.

On July 11, 2019, the Paris Court of Appeals dismissed most of the pharmaceutical company Janssen-Cilag’s claims in its appeal against the FCA decision fining it for delaying market entry of a generic drug[1], thereby essentially upholding the FCA’s third decision fining a pharmaceutical company for denigrating generic drugs after Sanofi-Aventis[2] and Schering-Plough.[3]