On 30 November 2021, the CAT published an order of the High Court transferring a damages action brought by Kelkoo. com (UK) Limited and ten other group company claimants (together, Kelkoo) against Google from the High Court to the CAT. The claims are being brought under section 47A of the Competition Act 1998 (CA98) in respect of alleged infringements of Article 102 TFEU and/or the Chapter 2 CA98. Kelkoo operates online price comparison sites. It claims that Google unlawfully favoured its own shopping comparison service over Kelkoo’s site in Google search results.

In March 2021, the Commission adopted a Communication (the “Guidance”)[1] on the application of the referral mechanism pursuant to Article 22 of the EU Merger Regulation (“EUMR”). The Guidance encourages national competition authorities (“NCAs”) to refer to the Commission certain transactions[2] that do not meet national merger control thresholds and would otherwise escape merger control review in the EU. The Commission had long discouraged the referral of such cases, considering that they were generally unlikely to have a significant impact on the internal market. Continue Reading Commission Opens In-Depth Investigations Into Two Article 22 EUMR Upward Referral Cases