Cartels

On April 27, 2020[1] the Council of State upheld two judgments issued by the Regional Administrative Court of Lazio (“TAR Lazio”) in 2016,[2] which had annulled an ICA decision fining Chef Express S.p.A. (“Chef Express”) and My Chef Ristorazione Commerciale S.p.A. (“My Chef”, and together with Chef Express, the “Companies”) for alleged bid rigging in the market for food catering services in Italian motorway restaurants (the “Decision”).[3]

In particular, the Council of State agreed with the TAR Lazio that the ICA had not adequately proved a collusive scheme.

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 2, 2020, the Court of Justice of the European Union (the “CJEU”) ruled on a 2018 preliminary reference from Hungary’s Supreme Court, vacating on appeal the decision of the Hungarian competition authority. The authority found that an agreement on multilateral interchange fees (“MIFs”) constituted a by-object and by-effect infringement of Article 101 TFEU.[1] The judgment concerns two heavily discussed topics: the notion of restriction of competition by object vs effect,[2] and MIFs.[3]

On March 16, 2020, the TAR Lazio delivered its ruling in the judicial review proceedings concerning the 2019 ICA decision finding that, from 2008 to 2015, the MP Silva Group, the IMG Group, and the B4 Capital Group coordinated their bids in the procedures for the assignment of international audiovisual rights for the broadcasting of the matches of the football seasons relating to the Serie A and B, the Italy Cup and the Italian Super Cup, in countries other than Italy.[1]

On March 3, 2020, the TAR Lazio rejected the appeal brought by Open Fiber S.p.A. (“Open Fiber”, an operator active in the development of optical fiber networks based on the Fiber to the Home technology) for the annulment of the commitment decision adopted by the ICA in proceedings against Telecom Italia S.p.A. (“TIM”) and Fastweb S.p.A. (“Fastweb”), concerning the markets for wholesale access to the fixed network and fixed broadband and ultra- wideband retail telecommunications services.[1]