On March 25, 2022, the French Conseil constitutionnel[1] held that the provisions of Article L.470-2, paragraph VII of the French Commercial Code, which provide for the cumulative enforcement of penalties imposed on the same person for multiple breaches regarding restrictive trade practices, are in compliance with the French Constitution.
As the climate and biodiversity crises loom, coherent efforts are needed in all fields to get to “net zero”. Just as public action is needed, cooperation in the private sector may also prove indispensable to achieve sustainability goals in the short time available.
On March 24, 2022, the European Parliament, the Commission and the EU Member States reached an agreement on the text of the Digital Markets Act (“DMA”). And on April 23, 2022, the same set of EU bodies reached political agreement on the final text of the Digital Services Act (“DSA”). The new legislations will now make their way through the final procedural hurdles over the summer.
On March 15, 2022, the ICA imposed fines of over €90 million on the associations of undertakings Anica, Anec and Anec Lazio, representing the Italian film and audiovisual industry as well as companies managing cinemas in Italy (jointly the “Associations”), for an alleged collective boycott infringing Article 101 TFEU.[1]
The Competition Appeal Tribunal (CAT) has granted a claim for damages by Achilles Information Limited (“Achilles”) against Network Rail Infrastructure Limited (“Network Rail”).[1] The Judgment is the CAT’s first damages award arising from a standalone claim since 2016,[2] and follows the CAT’s earlier finding that Network Rail had breached Chapter 1 and Chapter 2 of the Competition Act 1998 (the“Act”).[3]
In a ruling dated March 9, 2022, the Paris Court of Appeals partially quashed a 2019 judgment in which the Paris Commercial Court had held that Schneider Electric France was in a dominant position in certain markets for the supply of spare parts.
On March 1, 2022, the Conseil d’État rejected a claim brought by French telecommunications and internet provider Free in connection
On February 28, 2022, the Regional Administrative Court for Latium (the “TAR Lazio”) rejected the appeal filed by TIM against the ICA’s decision that had imposed a fine of over €116 million imposed by the ICA in 2020 for an alleged abuse of dominant position in the wholesale and retail markets for broadband and ultra-broadband telecommunications services in Italy (the “Judgment”).[1]
In a series of non-final judgments, published between February 15 and 25, 2022 (the “Judgments”),[1] the Council of State upheld the appeals for revocation filed by Medicair Italia S.r.l., Medigas S.r.l., Linde Medicale S.r.l., Sapio Life S.r.l. and Vivisol S.r.l. (the “Parties”), as it found a number of material errors in certain previous judgments of the same court.[2]
On February 23, 2022, the General Court dismissed UPS’ €1.7 billion claim for damages allegedly suffered due to the Commission’s prohibition of the proposed €5.2 billion merger between UPS and TNT Express (“TNT”). Although the General Court had previously annulled the Commission prohibition decision due to procedural deficiencies, it rejected UPS’ follow-on damages claim because UPS failed to demonstrate that it would have secured approval for the TNT transaction absent the procedural breach.[1]