On September 30, 2021, the Paris Court of Appeals upheld the FCA’s decision of April 24, 2020 (the “Decision”) to dismiss Molotov’s complaint regarding certain practices allegedly carried out by the two main private free-to-air television broadcasters in France, TF1 and M6. The Court held that, in line with the FCA’s findings, neither the evidence on file nor that adduced by the complainant were sufficient to establish any of the alleged infringements.
On 27 September 2021, the CAT issued its judgment on an application by the proposed Class Representative Mr Le Patourel, for a Collective Proceedings Order (CPO), and an application by BT (a) to strike out the claim pursuant to Rule 41(1) (b) of The Competition Appeal Tribunal Rules 2015 (the Rules) on the basis that there were no reasonable grounds for making it and/or (b) for summary judgment to dismiss the claim pursuant to Rule 43(1)(a) of the Rules on the basis that it had no real prospect of success.
On September 21, 2021, the Milan Court of Appeal dismissed an appeal filed by Digital World Television (“DWT” or “Appellant”),[1] a company active in the distribution of audiovisual programs for adults, against the judgment delivered in 2019 by the lower court, which had also dismissed DWT’s claims for damages against Sky Italia (“Sky” or the “Defendant”) for an alleged abuse of dominant position and/or abuse of economic dependence.[2]
On 13 September 2021, the CAT published an application to commence collective proceedings under section 47B of the CA98 against Google alleging that it has abused dominant positions in breach of Article 102 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union (TFEU) and the Chapter 2 Prohibition of the Competition Act.
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit recently issued a 2-1 decision in In re Vitamin C Antitrust Litig., dismissing antitrust claims against two Chinese pharmaceutical companies for reasons of international comity in a case that has lasted over 15 years.[1]
On September 15, 2021, the TAR Lazio annulled the ICA decision finding telecom operator Vodafone Italia S.p.A. (“Vodafone”) in breach of Article 102 TFEU for allegedly abusing its dominance in the market for Short Message Service (“SMS”) termination.[1]
On September 7, 2021, the TAR Lazio rejected the applications brought by associations of undertakings Anica, Anec and Anec Lazio (jointly the “Applicants”),[1] representing the Italian film and audiovisual industry, for the annulment of a decision in which the ICA imposed an interim cease and desist order in proceedings concerning an alleged anticompetitive conduct in relation to free outdoor film screenings.[2]
In a decision dated September 9, 2021, the French Competition Authority (the “FCA”) imposed a total fine of €500,000 on several players in the road freight sector for participating in a single, complex and continuous infringement aimed at organizing a collective boycott of new digital intermediation platforms and geolocation software applications (the “Decision”).[1]
On 7 September 2021 the CAT issued a judgment striking out Forrest Fresh Foods’ claim against Coca-Cola European Partners Great
On 29 July 2021, the CMA announced that it had imposed a fine of £101 million on Advanz Pharma for