Competition/antitrust

Recent Articles

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  22/04/2025

  Austria

  Austrian merger control – Supreme Court rules on ‘sig­ni­fic­ant domestic activities’ requirement under the transaction value test

  The Austrian Supreme Court in its Edwards Lifesciences/JenaValve decision dated 26 March 2025 (16 Ok 2/25t) examines under which circumstances the acquired target undertaking/business ‘is active’ in Austria ‘to a significant extent’. Only if this requirement is met, a merger notification under the so-called transaction value test pursuant to Section 9(4) of the Austrian Cartel Act (KartG) can be required.The case stems from the contemplated acquisition of JenaValve Technology, Inc. (JenaValve) by Edwards Lifesciences Corp. (Edwards) and provides important guidance for assessing...

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  17/04/2025

  United Kingdom

  No more faux five-stars: The DMCC Act bans fake reviews

  New rules banning fake online reviews came into force on 6 April, breach of which could lead to hefty penalties of up to 10% of annual global turnover.Most of the consumer law provisions of the Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Act (the “DMCC Act”) are now in force, and on 4 April 2025 the CMA published guidance on many of the provisions, including those relating to fake reviews: Fake reviews: CMA208 - GOV.UKA key change that the DMCC Act makes to the previous legislation (the Consumer Protection from Unfair Trading Regulations) is that the DMCC Act includes  prohibitions...

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  16/04/2025

  Europe

  New Important Project of Common European Interest (IPCEI) focusing on innovative nuclear technologies

  A high-level meeting of the Joint European Forum on Important Projects of Common European Interest (JEF-IPCEI) was held last week, attended by Executive Vice-Presidents Teresa Ribera and Stéphane Séjourné and high-level representatives of Member States.Discussion at the forum further focused on:possible improvements to further simplify and speed up the IPCEI process;how to use IPCEIs to achieve the objectives set out in the Clean Industrial Dealoptions to facilitate EU co-financing of IPCEI projects.The Commission announced during the Forum its support for a new important project...

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  11/04/2025

  United Kingdom

  Foot fault? Alleged anti-com­pet­it­ive practices of tennis’s governing bodies

  In March 2025, the Professional Tennis Players Association (PTPA) submitted an antitrust complaint to the UK’s Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) and served letters before action in the UK, EU and New York against the governing bodies of professional tennis. The PTPA accuse those organisations of operating as a cartel by engaging in anti-competitive practices to suppress player earnings and welfare, as well as in the UK imposing restrictive rules on tennis competitions in breach of section 2 and section 18 of the Competition Act 1998.BackgroundThe PTPA is a US-based non-profit association...

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  09/04/2025

  United Kingdom

  CMA issues informal guidance on Builders Merchants Fed­er­a­tion’s supply chain initiative: A framework for ensuring compliance of sus­tain­ab­il­ity agreements?

  On 28 March 2025, the CMA published informal guidance issued to the Builders Merchants Federation (BMF) in respect of a proposed supply chain assurance initiative for use by its members (BMF Guidance). The BMF Guidance is made pursuant to the open-door policy under the CMA’s Green Agreements Guidance on the application of the Chapter I prohibition to the Competition Act 1998 (CA98) to environmental sustainability agreements (CMA Guidance).  This is the third time the CMA has published such informal guidance. Other instances relate to supply chain emissions and fairtrade initiatives in...

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  08/04/2025

  Germany

  German court decision restricts expansive in­ter­pret­a­tion of the transaction value threshold in merger control

  In two rulings on 26 February 2025, the Düsseldorf Higher Regional Court (HRC) limited the Federal Cartel Office's (FCO) expansive interpretation of the transaction value threshold. These decisions, which arose from Adobe's 2018 acquisitions of Magento for USD 1.68 billion and Marketo for USD 4.75 billion, provide important guidance on the notification requirements for high-value acquisitions of targets with limited German revenues.Legal backgroundThe purely turnover-based filing threshold in Germany (Section 35 (1) ARC) only triggers a filing obligation if:the combined worldwide turnover...

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