Between January 18 and January 20, 2022, the German Federal Cartel Office (“FCO”) raided the German premises of four associations and several manufacturers of electrical cables and wires in relation to alleged coordination of industry-standard metal surcharges.
On January 19, 2022, the German Federal Cartel Office (“FCO”) launched a new sector inquiry into the waste management sector in preparation to order Rethmann SE & Co. KG (“Rethmann Group”) to notify future acquisitions of smaller waste management companies.[1]
On January 19, 2022, the General Court ordered the Commission to pay default interest on the excess amount of a fine paid by Deutsche Telekom. The interest relates to a €31 million fine the Commission imposed on Deutsche Telekom in October 2014 for infringing Article 102 TFEU by implementing margin squeezing practices in the Slovak broadband market.
On January 19, 2022, the German Federal Cartel Office (“FCO”) closed its proceedings on furniture retailer KHG GmbH & Co. KG’s (Krieger/Höffner Group, “KHG”) envisaged accession to the purchasing cooperation Bedarfsgüter Großhandelsgesellschaft für Wohnung GmbH (“Begros”) which it had initiated in early 2021. In the end, KHG and Begros were able to dispel the FCO’s concerns by offering substantial modifications to their initial plans.[1]
On Tuesday, January 18th, FTC Chair Lina Khan and DOJ Antitrust Division Assistant Attorney General Jonathan Kanter held a joint press conference in which they announced ambitious plans to review and update the Merger Guidelines, targeting a release of new guidelines before the end of 2022.
By an order issued on January 18, 2022,[1] the Italian Supreme Court rejected as inadmissible an application lodged by Kuadra S.r.l. (“Kuadra”) for cassation of a ruling delivered in 2019 by the Council of State,[2] which upheld an ICA decision fining Kuadra for its participation in an alleged anticompetitive agreement aimed at altering the outcome of a public tender for cleaning and maintenance services (the “Decision”),[3] after the TAR Lazio had set it aside at first instance.[4]
On January 17, 2022, the German Federal Cartel Office (“FCO”) published a case summary on its two consecutive in-depth-investigations of automotive supplier Dana Inc.’s (“Dana”)[1] proposed acquisition of (a portion of) Modine Manufacturing Company’s (“Modine”)[2] light-vehicle thermal business.[3] The parties first notified the acquisition in December 2020.
On January 13, 2022, the German Federal Cartel Office (“FCO”) prohibited ACO Ahlmann SE & Co. KG’s (“ACO”) acquisition of BIRCO GmbH (“BIRCO”).[1]
In the 2021 edition of this memo, we wrote that antitrust in 2020 received more political and media attention than at any recent time. 2021 beat that standard in multiple ways, and 2022 looks to continue that trend. In addition to continuing the major tech cases brought under the Trump administration, 2021 saw unprecedented levels of legislative activity in antitrust (both federal and state), competition policy taking a leading position across federal agencies and startling new approaches at the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) in particular – new approaches that, while they haven’t yet produced a wave of new enforcement actions, have required changes in thinking about and approaching antitrust issues. We expect these trends to accelerate in 2022.