Topic: Coronavirus

The Dutch competition authority has closed an investigation into alleged resale price maintenance in the home furnishings sector, in what appears to be the first case to be discontinued in line with the agency’s guidelines on assessing vertical agreements.

18 August 2021

France’s Competition Authority has cleared a deal that will save toy retailer Maxi Toys from bankruptcy, subject to the buyer divesting three of the 95 purchased stores.

13 August 2021

The UK’s antitrust watchdog has agreed to advise the government on whether travellers are being charged excessive prices for covid-19 tests after the health secretary asked it to conduct a “rapid high-level review”.

09 August 2021

The European Commission’s in-depth merger investigations are exceeding 18 months on average, law firm Dechert’s latest quarterly merger tracking report has found.

30 July 2021

The UK’s competition authority has implemented a remedy proposal that forces funeral providers to clearly display a standardised price list for funeral services and prohibits providers from soliciting business through payment incentives.

18 June 2021

The covid-19 pandemic did not change the European Commission’s merger enforcement – despite several companies abandoning their planned tie-ups during Phase II probes, EU competition commissioner Margrethe Vestager has said.

15 June 2021

Federal Trade Commission member Noah Phillips is calling on his agency to analyse the impacts of rules and regulations that state and local governments have retracted amid the covid-19 pandemic.

09 April 2021

Air Canada has scrapped its plans to acquire Transat during the European Commission’s in-depth review of the deal, concluding that offering further "onerous" remedies would harm its ability to compete and recover from the coronavirus pandemic.

06 April 2021

The UK’s Competition and Markets Authority has acknowledged that it needs to get “closer to the needs of consumers” after its former chairman blasted the agency as unfit for purpose.

24 February 2021

The heads of antitrust authorities in the US, Portugal and Spain have said their agencies are keeping a close eye on competition issues in labour markets to help boost economies as they recover from the coronavirus pandemic.

24 February 2021