Technology, Media & Communications

On February 5, 2020, the FCO announced that it has no competitive concerns regarding the launch of the agricultural online trading platform operated by unamera GmbH (“Unamera”).[1] The FCO pointed out that while digital platforms can make trading much more efficient, it must be ensured that they must not restrict competition: Digital platforms must not be subject to price-fixing agreements, they must be non-discriminatory and there must not be excessive transparency.

On January 30, 2020, the Commission fined NBCUniversal and other companies belonging to the Comcast Corporation €14.3 million for breaching Article 101 TFEU by imposing territorial restrictions on cross-border and online sales of movie merchandising products within the EEA.[1] The Commission granted NBCUniversal a 30% fine reduction on account of its cooperation.

On January 29, 2020, the Cour de Cassation issued two judgments relating to decisions from the FCA’s Rapporteur Général to waive the protection of business secrets granted to a party in proceedings before the FCA. In the first judgment, the Cour de Cassation held that the Rapporteur Général must provide concrete reasons in order to waive the protection of business secrets granted to a party in proceedings involving other parties. Conversely, in the second judgment, the proceedings did not involve any other parties, and the Cour de Cassation upheld the Rapporteur Général’s decision to waive the protection of business secrets initially granted to a party. The Cour de Cassation considered that the Rapporteur Général’s decision would not risk exposing that party’s business secrets to any third parties.

In February 2020, the FCA published a practical guide on the application of antitrust rules to small and medium-sized enterprises. The FCA published this guide with the knowledge that SMEs often lack the resources to be fully aware of and comply with antitrust rules.

On January 28, 2020, the Italian Competition Authority (the “ICA”) issued a decision finding that four telecom operators, namely Fastweb S.p.A. (“Fastweb”), Telecom Italia S.p.A. (“TIM” or “Telecom”), Vodafone Italia S.p.A. (“Vodafone”) and Wind Tre S.p.A. (“Wind Tre”) (together, the “Operators”), participated in a cartel aimed at coordinating their commercial strategies, with a view to keeping prices high during the transition from four-week (28 days) billing to monthly billing (so-called repricing), thus impeding competition and limiting the risk of customers migrating to other competitors.[1]

On January 24, 2020, the German Ministry for Economic Affairs published a draft proposal for the 10th Amendment to the German Act against Restraints of Competition (“Draft Proposal”). Its main objectives are (i) to enable and strengthen the protection of competition in digital markets, (ii) to make German competition law and its enforcement more efficient in general, and (iii) to implement the ECN+ Directive[1].

In January 2020, the FCA published its study on behavioral remedies in merger control and anticompetitive practices.[1] The study takes stock of the FCA’s decisional practice on behavioral remedies and provides material for broader discussion amongst competition law practitioners and academics.

On January 16, 2020, the FCA dismissed a complaint by French terrestrial digital television broadcaster towerCast which alleged that its competitor TDF’s acquisition of Itas,[1] constituted an abuse of dominance on the wholesale markets for digital terrestrial television broadcasting services (the “Decision”).

On January 16, 2020, the TAR Lazio[1] accepted the application filed by Società Iniziative Editoriali S.p.A. (hereinafter “SIE”), a company active in the daily newspaper market and publisher of the main daily newspaper in the area of Trento (L’Adige), for annulment of an ICA decision finding SIE to have abused its dominant position on the said market by refusing to license the editorial contents of its newspaper to companies providing daily press reviews in the area of Trento.