Royal Mail, advised by a team from Ashurst, has been unable to fend off a £50m fine from Ofcom, after an investigation into the business’s practices in 2014 found the delivery giant had “abused its dominant position in bulk mail delivery”. Three-partner firm Towerhouse advised Whistl, then known as TNT, which was trying to break into […]
Backhouse Jones, alongside Addleshaw Goddard, has filed an application on behalf of 3,500 clients in proceedings against nine truck manufacturers which, if successful, could be worth as much as £5bn. The two firms have filed the joint application for a collective proceedings order (CPO) with the Competition Appeal Tribunal (CAT). Should the CAT give the […]
Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton-represented Google has been hit with a record £3.8bn (€4.3bn) fine by the European Union Commission (EC) for breaching EU antitrust rules. This is the second record EC antitrust fine that Google has been hit with in two years, following a £2.1bn (€2.4bn) fine in 2017, both of which were pursued […]
Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer has added a new antitrust partner to its Washington DC office from the US Department of Justice (DoJ).
Ofcom can press ahead with the auction of spectrum for 4G and 5G services after the Court of Appeal dismissed a challenge by Three and BT on the first day of a two-day appeal.
Cadwalader’s decision to close its Beijing and Hong Kong offices will provide short-term relief to the firm’s financial results, but it won’t solve the real problems the firm has in the US.
Slaughter and MayCompetition team of the year The award-winning Slaughter and May competition team won an advisory spot last year on a groundbreaking appeal in the electricity and gas sector. The firm advised Northern Powergrid as it lodged an appeal to the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) against Ofgem’s decision to modify the electricity […]
The complexities of sleeping on the job and the perils of loose talk are among the subjects tackled by this week’s experts.
This week’s top briefings writers from TheLawyer.com cover the regulatory and competition sectors, including how philanthropic fundraising through crowdfunding can clash with insurance claims, new UK public procurement rules, and Ukraine sanctions law.
A hi-tech sector on a roll, growing Chinese investor interest, rows over competition law and booming M&A – things are buzzing for Israel’s lawyers.
UK competition lawyers have a new regulator and new rules to follow when handling mergers. Is it ‘business as usual’ as the old OFT and CC promised? April 2014 marked the beginning of a new era for the UK’s competition lawyers. Partly due to the Government’s drastic programme of spending cuts, the UK scrapped its […]
Panellists at The Lawyer’s recent Romania briefing heard much to encourage them to get involved in the country When it comes to investing in Romania there’s no time like the present, according to panellists at The Lawyer’s recent Briefing Live event on the country, held in association with Popovici Nitu & Asociatii. The watchword was […]
Magic circle firm’s ACT dept refuses to play second fiddle to corporate. By Gavriel Hollander Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer’s antitrust, competition and trade (ACT) team has, it is fair to say, stood head and shoulders above its UK rivals for some time. But with merger control not the lucrative stream it once was, this might be the […]
US-style class actions have been avoided… for the time being, says Kit Chellel
The Competition and Markets Authority (the “CMA”) has published its provisional findings (set out below) in its market investigation into investment consultancy and fiduciary management services to pension scheme trustees. Background to the proposal…
The UK’s Competition and Markets Authority (“CMA”) is consulting on proposed revisions to its current guidance on director disqualification in competition law cases (the “Current Guidance”). The consultation on the CMA’s proposed revised guidance (the “Draft Revised Guidance”) closes at 17:00 GMT on Thursday 13 September 2018, and follows the director disqualifications secured by the CMA […]
On 19 July, 2018 the Bulgarian Commission for the Protection of Competition (the “CPC”) prohibited two concentrations. The first being the sale of the second largest media conglomerate in Bulgaria, Nova Broadcasting Group AD (“Nova Broadcasting”), (owner of Nova TV), to PPF Bidco, (owned by Czech businessman Petr Kellner), and secondly the sale of CEZ’s assets […]
On 23 July 2018, the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) published its final report in its market study into heat networks. The CMA conducted a comprehensive seven-month study to assess whether households are “getting a good deal” and found that new regulation is required in order to protect heat network customers in a similar way to existing […]
On 24 July 2018, the European Commission issued four decisions fining Asus, Philips, Denon & Marantz and Pioneer, for a total of €111m, for fixing or establishing minimum resale prices on online retailers, a commercial practice also known as resale price maintenance (RPM). According to the EC, such RPM practices restricted online retailers’ ability to […]
The competition law regulates matters related to the creation of conditions for fair competition in the market for business entities, identification and implementation of legal and organisational grounds for prohibition, restriction and prevention of any activities impeding competition. This law is effective in the territory of Mongolia and other countries, if the entity engages in […]
In recent years, competition authorities in Europe have shown an increased interest in vertical agreements which may infringe national or supranational competition laws. A vertical agreement is a term used in competition law to define agreements between companies operating at different levels of the supply chain. Examples of vertical agreements include agency agreements, supply agreements, […]
By Samuel R Beighton and Bola Ajayi The UK’s Competition and Markets Authority (the “CMA”) has recently imposed financial penalties for procedural breaches under the UK merger control regime, including…
By Dimitris Sinaniotis … Blockchain technology and its uses raise significant questions about various issues, from security and privacy issues to liability and jurisdiction concerns with regards to potential disputes or fraud claims. An issue that has received relatively minimal attention however is whether the use of blockchain technology could raise competition law risks….
The European Commission’s 39-month long investigation into Google’s Android operating system ends with a recordbreaking antitrust fine of €4.34bn imposed on Google. The US tech giant was fined for imposing illegal restrictions on Android device manufacturers and mobile network operators, in order to cement its already super dominant position in general internet search services. The […]
The Serbian Competition Authority and the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) have launched an initiative to establish a regional competition forum. The forum will include all Western Balkan states (Serbia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro, Kosovo, Macedonia and Albania) and two EU member states (Slovenia and Croatia). It will, therefore, include all of former […]
On 18 July 2018, the Competition and Markets Authority (“CMA”) published its provisional decision as part of its investment consultancy and fiduciary management services market investigation. The provisional decision can be found here. Market investigations are a tool available to the CMA under the Enterprise Act 2002, which allow the CMA to look in a wide-ranging […]
