Sports

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 15, 2020, the German Federal Cartel Office (“FCO”) discontinued its proceedings against pay TV broadcaster Sky Ltd. and online streaming service provider DAZN Group Ltd. (“DAZN”) over alleged collusion during the award of the German broadcasting rights to UEFA Champions League matches for the seasons 2018/2019 to 2020/2021 for discretionary reasons.[1]

On April 7, 2020, the FCA imposed a €900,000 fine on Pari Mutuel Urbain (“PMU”), the main French horse race betting group, for failing to separate the betting pools of its online and physical activities.[1] PMU had taken this commitment in 2014 in order to end an FCA investigation for a potential abuse of dominance.[2]

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.

Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) and Payment Systems Regulator (PSR)

The FCA and PSR announced that they support the CMA’s guidance on its approach to business cooperation in response to COVID-19 under competition law and will take a consistent approach to their competition law enforcement activity in the financial services sector. This means that these regulators will not enforce competition law in a way that impedes financial services providers from working together to provide essential services to consumers during the COVID-19 pandemic.