merger control

Competition Law 2021, Damages, Digital economy, Dominance, Enforcement, Germany, Horizontal, Judicial review, Litigation, Merger control, Online platforms, Price fixing, Rebates, Uncategorized

(Heinz & Zagrosek Partner mbB, Germany)/ /Leave a comment

The following is a selection of some of the most important developments in German competition law and policy in 2021.  It has been a busy year for the Federal Cartel Office (“FCO”), inter alia because the new rules for digital companies took effect.  The following covers cases under these new rules, abuse of dominance, merger…

Competition, Competition law, Competition policy, Digitisation, European Union, Merger control, Remedies, Uncategorized

(Kirkland & Ellis, Belgium)/ /Leave a comment

Most competition authorities have a preference for structural remedies in merger cases in the form of divestitures while behavioural remedies are used less frequently. The below blog post analyses whether the historical bias of behavioural remedies is still warranted or whether it is time that authorities take a more flexible and differentiated approach when considering…

Anticompetitive agreements, Joint ventures, Merger control, Netherlands

(Bird & Bird, The Netherlands), (Bird & Bird, Netherlands), and , (Bird & Bird)/ /Leave a comment

Background On 20 December 2019, the Dutch Authority for Consumers & Markets (ACM) published a decision in which the commitment to dissolve the joint venture Port Towage Amsterdam (PTA) by two port towing undertakings was confirmed. This joint venture was created by the undertakings Svitzer and Iskes. ACM believed that the cooperation between the two…

Austria, Enforcement, Germany, Mergers

(Heinz & Zagrosek Partner mbB, Germany)/ /Leave a comment

On May 14, 2018, the German and Austrian competition authorities have published joint draft guidelines on the new transaction value merger thresholds, including an English translation (see here). Comments can be submitted by June 8, 2018. It would certainly be helpful if members of the legal and economic community from jurisdictions with similar transaction size…

Antitrust, Cartels, Competition, Dominance, Enforcement, Investigations, Mergers, United Kingdom

(St Johns Chambers, United Kingdom)/ /Leave a comment

The Competition and Markets Authority (“CMA”) has recently published its draft Annual Plan for 2015/2016, its second year of operation after assuming the functions of the Competition Commission and the competition functions of the Office of Fair Trading (“OFT”) on 1 April 2014. Together with a Strategic Assessment of the risks that consumers and markets…

Antitrust, Competition, United Kingdom

(St Johns Chambers, United Kingdom)/ /Leave a comment

Two unusual features of the United Kingdom’s merger control regime are that notification is voluntary and there is no ‘suspension’ obligation. This means that mergers can be – and routinely are – completed without notification to and/or approval by the Competition and Markets Authority (“CMA”). In this article, I examine the CMA’s use of its…

Competition

(Hogan Lovells )/ /Leave a comment

Last week, the Polish Lower Chamber of Parliament agreed final changes to Poland’s competition law regime. The new regime, which will be implemented by amendments to the Polish Act on Competition and Consumer Protection, is likely to come into force at the beginning of 2015. Whilst the amendments simplify and accelerate merger control proceedings, they…

Antitrust

(White & Case, Belgium)/ /Leave a comment

On 5 December, the European Commission published a package of measures to reduce the administrative burden of EU merger control, which will apply as of 1 January 2014. The package extends the scope of the simplified procedure for non-problematic cases. This means that more transactions may be notified using the Short Form CO, which will…

Antitrust, Competition

(Hogan Lovells, China)/ /Leave a comment

The Chinese Ministry of Commerce (“MOFCOM“) has stepped up its merger control activities on many fronts in recent weeks, issuing ground-breaking decisions in the Glencore/Xstrata and Marubeni/Gavilon cases and circulating draft procedural rules for public consultation on merger remedies and on dealing with straightforward merger control cases. The new decisions On April 16, 2013, MOFCOM…