On August 17, 2020, the Commission conditionally approved Mastercard’s acquisition of Nets’ payment application division, following a Phase I review (“the Transaction”).[1] The Commission reviewed the Transaction following a referral by the Danish Competition and Consumer Authority, and ultimately identified competitive concerns in an EEA-wide market for account-to-account core infrastructure services (“A2A CIS”) in relation to managed solutions that required the transfer of the overlapping business to secure Phase I approval.

On August 17, 2020, the General Court ordered the Commission to pay EUR 270,250 in recoverable costs to UPS.[1] UPS’ application for costs followed its successful 2017 action for annulment of the Commission’s January 30, 2013, veto of UPS’ takeover of TNT.[2]

In August 2020, the FCO published the results[1] of its investigation into the effect of narrow price parity clauses on online sales.  Narrow price parity clauses restrict suppliers from offering their products or services at lower prices or more favorable conditions in certain sales channels.  In contrast, wide price parity clauses restrict suppliers from offering their products or services at lower prices or with more favorable conditions anywhere else.