Conference Coverage
State aid official: we need right toolkit to define selectivity principle
12 October 2018
The European Court of Justice’s recent Heitkamp Bauholding ruling shows the importance the courts attach to the selectivity principle in state aid – but the European Commission lacks “the right toolkit” to define the correct reference system in such cases, a commission official has said.
EU has made private enforcement in state aid less attractive, says lawyer
11 October 2018
The European Commission and EU courts have made state aid private enforcement “less appealing and less attractive” by ignoring national court judgments, a state aid lawyer has said.
EU official: courts must back digital sector enforcement
11 October 2018
It is up to the EU courts to uphold decisions by the European Commission as it adapts long-standing principles of competition enforcement to address new business conduct in digital markets, a senior official has said.
Google cases might have been slower with interim measures, DG Comp official says
08 October 2018
Criticism of the speed of the European Commission’s Google Shopping and Android probes is somewhat unjust, and using interim measures in those cases might have risked slowing down the final outcomes, a senior official at the EU enforcer has said.
Presumption of parental influence a concern, barrister says
04 October 2018
A ruling to allow two UK subsidiaries to be used as anchor defendants in follow-on litigation – on the presumption that they did not act independently of their parent companies – could increase the risk of irreconcilable judgments, a competition barrister has cautioned.
Mr Justice Marcus Smith calls for disclosure hearings for experts
04 October 2018
Specific disclosure hearings requiring experts to explain their selection of evidence and methodological process should become a procedural part of competition claims, Mr Justice Marcus Smith has said.
UK barrister: claimants should be optimistic after iiyama judgment
04 October 2018
A competition barrister has said the Intel and iiyama judgments should leave claimants and lawyers “cautiously optimistic” on territorial limits in damages claims.
CMA chief economist: don’t get bogged down on definition in two-sided markets
02 October 2018
The UK’s chief competition economist has said questions about market definition are not harder to answer in two-sided markets, but cautioned against getting too bogged down in the minutiae of such questions when it doesn’t necessarily offer greater clarity.
Boswell defends new Canadian leniency programme
01 October 2018
Significant revisions to Canada’s leniency and immunity programmes that ask for more and speedier cooperation from companies were the product of extensive consultation at home and abroad, the interim head of the country’s Competition Bureau has said.
Mundt hopes for action on Facebook before 2019
01 October 2018
The president of Germany’s Federal Cartel Office has said he is “very optimistic” about taking further steps before the end of this year in his agency’s probe of what Facebook does with user data.