Real Estate & Construction

On May 28, 2020 the General Court overturned Commissioner Vestager’s first prohibition decision, blocking a 4-to-3 merger in the UK…

Following the Commission’s roadmap and launch of the public consultation process,[1] on May 26, 2020, the Commission published the final report[2] with support studies for the evaluation of the Vertical Block Exemption Regulation (the “VBER”).[3] The report is part of the Commission’s evaluation of the VBER, which is set to expire on May 31, 2022.

On May 18, 2020, the French Cour de Cassation upheld the Paris Court of Appeals’ judgment which had confirmed the French Competition Authority’s (“FCA”) fining decision against Groupement des Installateurs Français (“GIF”). The Cour de Cassation held that the FCA’s Collège could re-open the investigation to allow the FCA’s investigation services to add evidence on which they relied for establishing the statement of objections (“SO”) but that they “inadvertently omitted” to include in the case file. The defendant’s response to the flawed SO can remain in the case file despite the fact that the defendant did not have access to that evidence when preparing its response, as long as the defendant is given the chance to reply to a supplementary SO after the investigation is re-opened.

By Order No. 2020-560 of May 13, 2020, the Government decided not to further postpone the time limits that had been suspended or interrupted since March 12, 2020, despite the extension of the state of health emergency. Consistently, in a press release of May 18, 2020, the French Competition Authority (“FCA”) announced that it would progressively re-instate the statutory time limits that had been interrupted or suspended in light of the state of health emergency. All of these time limits will resume on June 24, 2020 at the latest.[1]

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, their actions could raise potential issues under competition law.

On April 22, 2020, the Italian Competition Authority (the “ICA”) issued a notice (the “Notice”) providing guidelines on the assessment of cooperation agreements in the context of the Covid-19 emergency.[1]

On April 3, 2020, the Commission launched a public consultation to review the adequacy of the 1997 Market Definition Notice (the “Notice”), which sets out the Commission’s formal guidance on the definition of relevant product and geographic market.[1] This kicks off a six-week process to solicit opinions from anyone interested.

Since the beginning of the COVID-19 outbreak, the French Government has notified a series of measures to the European Commission on the basis of the Temporary Framework adopted by the European Commission in order to enable Member States to support their economy in this specific context.[1] Such measures were authorized by the Commission under Article 107(3)(b) TFEU, as listed below.[2] The Commission also authorized a tax deferral scheme directed at French airlines under Article 107(2)(b) TFEU “to make good the damage caused by natural disasters or exceptional circumstances”.

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, their actions continue to raise potential issues under EU competition law.

CMA merger decisions are subject to judicial review by the Competition Appeal Tribunal (CAT). Challenges to the CMA’s substantive decision-making have, however, generally been unsuccessful. Although the CAT has been willing to intervene on matters of procedural fairness and errors of law, as recent decisions confirm, the CAT is reluctant to intervene in the CMA’s assessment of competitive effects and identification of remedies.