America Movil abuse of dominance case seems to be a”happy-end” story but not for everybody
Everybody at America Movil (”AM”) – and especially its owner, Mr.Carlos Slim – should have welcomed with a sense of relief the (somehow unexpected) turn in the saga which started last year when the Mexican Federal Competition Commission (“CFC”) hit AM’ mobile telephony unit Telcel with the largest fine in the history of Mexico: almost 1 billion USD.
The facts of this case are clear. Telcel has a share of 70% of the mobile telephony market in Mexico, lower only to its share on the land lines market, which is of 80% (!). From this position Telcel charged overpriced tariffs for interconnection with other land-line and mobile telephony operators. Telcel benefited twice from this [...]
The Dispute between Qihoo 360 and Tencent: What We Have Seen Thus Far
The feud between the Chinese Internet companies Qihoo 360 Technology Co., Ltd. (‘Qihoo 360’) and Tencent Inc. (‘Tencent’) has been simmering for nearly two years. This article spotlights the facts and major issues of the dispute.
The Facts
Tencent runs QQ, the most popular instant messaging (‘IM’) service in the mainland China with over 700 million active users by the end of 2011. Tencent also provides information security products, search engine, online media, gaming, interactive entertainment, e-commerce, etc. Qihoo 360 is China’s leading Internet security product and service provider and had over 400 million active users by the end of 2011.
Tencent and Qihoo 360 offer rival [...]
Competition Commission prohibition of completed merger a warning to companies that do not wait for UK merger clearance
Unlike in most countries, in the United Kingdom, the notification of mergers is voluntary and there is no waiting period that must expire before a merger can be completed. Therefore, many mergers are completed without waiting for merger clearance from the Office of Fair Trading (“OFT”) or, if there is a full ‘Phase II’ investigation, the Competition Commission (“CC”). However, the OFT routinely investigates completed mergers and, each year, several are subject to an in-depth investigation by the CC, particularly those which satisfy the ‘share of supply’ test (creation or strengthening of a market share of 25% or more), but not the turnover test.
A recent CC decision, Stericyc [...]
Behavioural Economics and EU Competition Law: Knocking on Open Doors? The Case of Art. 102 TFEU
- By Athanassios Skourtis, Centre for Commercial Law and Financial Regulation,
for Centre for Commercial Law and Financial Regulation
The discussion on the merit and feasibility of a possible application of Behavioural Economics in Competition Law and Policy has been fierce, particularly so in the context of US Antitrust Law. The fundamental assumption of Behavioural Economics lies in the recognition that human decision making is vulnerable and subject to biases. So-called neo-classical economic models that have hitherto informed competition law and policy (Chicago School, post-Chicago School, Harvard School) have relied on the existence of a ‘homo economicus’ i.e an ‘[economically] rational’ market participant (be it consumer or firm) who is driven by the goal of constant profit maximisation, appropriates all avai [...]
Size and noise
The bigger they are, the harder they fall and the sounds of the crash get louder as the legal controls get weaker.
Take, for instance, the recent £807.2m sale of Edinburgh airport to Global Infrastructure Partners. This is the latest disposal following the original recommendation by the UK Competition Commission (CC) that BAA’s airport operating empire should be broken up. Before approving the Edinburgh deal, the CC reviewed potential buyers to ensure that they met its criteria on things such as expertise, financial resources and independence from BAA. The CC will now consult on draft undertakings provided by GIP that prevent any resale of the airport within five years unless the new purc [...]
A lesson on judicial review from the other European Court in Luxembourg
Legal change sometimes takes unpredictable paths: mid-April, something important happened for European law in Luxembourg, but this did not come from the European Court of Justice (the “ECJ”).
Not every reader of this blog is necessarily aware that the ECJ has a sister European Court in Luxembourg, which is called the EFTA Court. This Court has jurisdiction with regard to the EFTA States that are parties to the EEA Agreement (at present Iceland, Liechtenstein and Norway). It delivers only a limited number of judgments every year, but they often are interesting reads. Since EEA law very much mirrors EU law, these judgments constitute a significant source of inspiration for EU law itself [...]
