Region: Europe

Counsel to a private equity group fined by the UK antitrust watchdog for its alleged part in the Prochlorperazine cartel has hit out at the agency, telling the Competition Appeal Tribunal that the enforcer showed a “troubling lack of restraint” in its sanctions decision.

05 June 2023

A food company has abandoned its plan to acquire two meat processing businesses after competition authorities in Belgium and the Netherlands raised significant antitrust concerns.

05 June 2023

Local lawyers have raised concerns about the retroactive nature of the Netherlands' new foreign investment screening regime, which requires the notification of deals involving sensitive technologies and vital suppliers.

02 June 2023

Austria’s Federal Competition Authority has agreed a €4.2 million cartel settlement with the world’s largest sugar producer, nine years after Germany’s Federal Cartel Office fined the company for colluding with rivals.

02 June 2023

Spain’s competition authority has dawn raided an unnamed company in the haircare products market over resale price maintenance concerns, 12 years after its predecessor agency sanctioned eight companies in the sector €51 million for collusion.

02 June 2023

Germany’s Federal Cartel Office is investigating if Vodafone and its tower company subsidiary delayed a nascent rival’s access to network antennas in an attempt to block its entry into the domestic telecommunications market.

02 June 2023

The UK’s Supreme Court has declined to hear an attempt by three vehicle shipping companies seeking to overturn the certification of a cartel damages class action, marking the end of the road for their challenge.

01 June 2023

Swedish law firm Kastell has poached the head of Vinge’s competition practice, while the latter has hired a former European Commission official from Apple and also promoted a new partner, counsel and chief economist.

01 June 2023

The European Commission has updated its horizontal block exemption regulation and related guidelines to introduce new rules on sustainability agreements, prompting the Dutch competition watchdog to promise to bring its own sustainability guidelines in line with those of the agency.

01 June 2023

Featured in SEP/FRAND Hub

The European Commission’s recent proposal aims to increase transparency and predictability in SEP licensing by introducing a central SEP register, extrajudicial review of a patent’s essentiality and a FRAND determination procedure. For German courts, this would most likely involve overhauling the current practice.

01 June 2023