Policy & Procedure

The German Federal Cartel Office (“FCO”) has endorsed a “one-time temporary cooperation project” of Germany-based sugar manufacturers Nordzucker, Südzucker, Pfeifer & Langen and Consun Beet to coordinate capacities for the processing of sugar beets from September 2022 to March 2023 in light of the dawning gas supply shortage.[1]

On September 29, 2022, the Commission adopted its Guidelines on the application of Union competition law to collective agreements regarding the working conditions of solo self-employed persons (“Guidelines”).[1] The Guidelines represent a part of a bigger push by the Commission to improve working conditions in platform work in the EU.[2]

On August 26, 2022, the Commission published the results of an external market study on the distribution practices of hotels in the EU, with a particular focus on parity clauses.[1] The study was conducted in 2021, after several years of close scrutiny by national competition authorities,[2] as well as the introduction of national legislation restricting the use of such clauses in several Member States.[3]

In the second episode of Cleary Gottlieb’s Antitrust Review podcast, a panel of Cleary Gottlieb partners discuss the achievements to

On July 12, the CMA published its final guidance (the Guidance) accompanying the UK’s block exemption for vertical agreements (VABEO).[1] 

In a significant judgment rendered on July 13, 2022 (“Judgment”), the EU’s General Court validated the position taken by the European Commission (“EC”) in a March 2021 Guidance Paper encouraging national competition authorities (“NCAs”) to use Article 22 of the EU Merger Regulation (“EUMR”) to refer transactions to the EC that do not meet national merger control thresholds, but which they believe may threaten to significantly affect competition within the EU.