Work Area: Market Studies & Inquiries

Greece’s Competition Commission has identified weaknesses in the country’s growing financial technology market that could allow large and more established technology companies to exploit their access to data and foreclose start-ups.

04 January 2023

Turkey’s Competition Authority has fined 13 major food and beverage companies over €44 million for both a hub-and-spoke cartel and resale price maintenance, while five supermarket chains escaped penalties under double jeopardy rules.

03 January 2023

Big Tech is uniquely placed to introduce welcome competition to the financial services sector, disrupting incumbents and benefitting consumers across the financial ecosystem. Yet, linked to concerns about tipping effects in digital markets, regulators worry about the potential for these companies to rapidly scale up and potentially exploit market power. Linklaters partner Jonathan Ford and senior associate Simon Treacy explore the UK financial regulator’s initial thoughts on the convergence.

21 December 2022

The UK’s Competition and Markets Authority plans to publish draft sustainability cooperation guidance “early next year”, its interim head has said while discussing with GCR how the agency can better help in the cost of living crisis.

15 December 2022

The UK’s Competition and Markets Authority has opened an in-depth probe into an already-completed tie-up between two of the country’s largest vehicle salvage service suppliers.

12 December 2022

A review of competition levels in several countries reveals that Iceland is home to “worrying” levels of market consolidation and barriers to entry, the chief economist of the country’s antitrust enforcer has said.

09 December 2022

The UK’s antitrust enforcer has fined BMW for failing to provide information in its investigation into alleged collusion in the vehicle recycling market, rejecting the manufacturer’s argument that it cannot compel production from companies based outside the UK.

08 December 2022

New Zealand’s Commerce Commission has made nine recommendations to remedy lacklustre competition in the residential building supplies market, while revealing it has opened a probe into one of the sector’s biggest companies over its use of quantity-based rebates.

07 December 2022

The UK’s competition enforcer has heralded digitisation for spurring competition in the music streaming market to the benefit of consumers, but acknowledged that some creators struggle to thrive among the abundance of new artists and renewed popularity of older songs.

29 November 2022

Germany’s Federal Cartel Office has bemoaned the “extremely high” legal barriers preventing it from using its competition powers to intervene in fuel markets to tackle soaring petrol prices, after finding no evidence of anticompetitive conduct in the first part of its study into the sector.

28 November 2022