On October 24, 2022, the Council of State[1] confirmed on appeal the annulment of a 2020 decision, by which the ICA had imposed a fine on CTS Eventim-TicketOne Group (“TicketOne”) for allegedly abusing its dominant position in the Italian market for the provision of ticketing services for pop music concerts.[2]
In September 2022, the General Court partially annulled the European Commission’s 2018 Google Android decision, which fined Google €4.3 billion for abuses of dominance relating to apps it offers for its Android mobile operating system (“OS”).[1] The Court also found that the Commission’s investigation suffered from procedural errors. It reduced the fine by €200 million.
On October 20, 2022, for the first time, the French Competition Authority used its newly-acquired ability to reject a claim on the basis of enforcement priority and rejected Culture Presse’s claim in relation to an alleged abuse of a dominant position by La Poste in respect of postal stamps distribution.[1] Since the transposition into French law of the ECN+ Directive[2] and pursuant to the second paragraph of Article L. 462-8 of the French Commercial Code, the Competition Authority no longer has an obligation to investigate, and may now, by way of a reasoned decision, reject a complaint where it is not considered an enforcement priority.
On October 20, 2022, Advocate General Kokott issued her opinion on the Commission’s appeal of the General Court’s landmark May 2020 judgment overturning the Commission’s prohibition of the Three/O2 UK mobile telecommunications merger.[1] The Opinion advises the Court of Justice to uphold the Commission’s appeal on all main grounds and refer the case back to the General Court for reconsideration.
On October 19, 2022, the Cour de cassation dismissed[1] an appeal brought by Carrefour against two decisions of the Paris Court of Appeals, which rejected its follow-on damage claim against Johnson & Johnson Santé Beauté France (“Johnson & Johnson”) in relation to its participation to the home and personal care cartel.[2]
On October 12, 2022, the Digital Markets Act (DMA) was published in the Official Journal of the European Union. This is the last step in the almost two-year long journey since the publication of the Commission’s initial proposal in December 2020.[1]
On October 13, 2022, Advocate General Kokott delivered her opinion on a preliminary reference from the Paris Court of Appeal in the Towercast case, stating that transactions that escape EU and national merger control review are susceptible to review under Article 102 TFEU.[1]
On October 11, 2022, the ICA closed an Article 102 TFEU investigation into Mastercard Europe SA (“Mastercard”)’s conduct by accepting the commitments offered by Mastercard relating to its double-tap mandate for contactless payments with co-badged payment cards (i.e., cards that can be used on more than one payment network) (the “Decision”),[1] which precluded retailers operating point-of-sale (“POS”) terminals from accepting single-tap payments from co-badged cards.
On October 10, 2022, the Commission sent a Statement of Objections (“SO”) to Teva, maintaining that the company abused its alleged dominant position through patent misuse and disparagement practices.[1]
In the fourth episode of Cleary Gottlieb’s Antitrust Review podcast, host Nick Levy interviews Professor Eleanor M. Fox, who for