Dechert’s Miriam Gonzalez finds new home after exiting firm
Dechert’s former trade co-chair Miriam Gonzalez is to join Cohen & Gresser, where she will split her time between Washington DC and London.
Brick Court silk set for Article 50 showdown in EU courts
Brick Court Chambers’ silk Maya Lester QC is due in the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) today acting for a handful of MPs to ascertain whether the UK would be able to revoke notification of its own volition. Presently, there is a point of contention over whether the UK could revoke the […]
Quinn gets go-ahead for Mastercard battle with Freshfields
Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan and Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer will go head-to-head next year, as the US firm moves one step closer to bringing the largest class action lawsuit in the UK courts. Lord Justices Patten, Hamblen and Roth have given Quinn the right to challenge the Competition Appeal Tribunal’s (CAT) refusal to grant the […]
Hogan Lovells Brussels head swaps over to Baker Botts
Baker Botts has made further moves in Europe, with the hire of Hogan Lovells’ Brussels managing partner Matthew Levitt. Levitt joins Baker Botts after almost 17 years at Hogan Lovells where he focused on transactional, advisory and contentious EU and UK competition law. He has particular expertise in the shipping, ports, oil and gas, industrial manufacturing and […]
Freshfields and Quinn in tense wait over future of £14bn Mastercard case
Judges in the Court of Appeal have adjourned a hearing in the £14bn consumer claim against Mastercard, meaning Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer and Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan may have to wait until next year to learn whether or not the case will proceed. The decision to adjourn was taken last week, with Lord Justice Patten understood to have […]
Closing in China won’t solve Cadwalader’s problems
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.
The Lawyer Awards 2016: transactional teams
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 […]
Star legal writers: Regulatory/competition
The complexities of sleeping on the job and the perils of loose talk are among the subjects tackled by this week’s experts.
Star legal writers: regulatory and competition
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.
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It’s all go in Silicon Wadi: Israel’s lawyers get busy
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.
Competition: what lawyers really think about changes to the UK’s regulatory regime
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 […]
Briefing live: Romania
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 […]
Freshfields’ competition team still sets the pace in spite of market shift
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 […]
Brussels flexes its muscles and stalls draft directive on competition law
US-style class actions have been avoided… for the time being, says Kit Chellel
Competition law and policy- 4th quarter 2018
Below, you will find the edition of the Competition Law and Policy Newsletter for the 4th quarter of 2018, which compiles the most significant news in this area. IN FOCUS: PORTUGAL I. COURTS Aptoide wins court battle against Google II. COMPETITION AUTHORITY Portuguese Competition Authority publishes definitive version of Issues Paper on technological innovation and […]
Hungarian Competition Authority revokes its decision clearing Digi’s acquisition of Invitel and imposes a significant fine
By Anna Turi The Hungarian Competition Authority (HCA) cleared the acquisition of sole control over Invitel Távközlési Zrt (“Invitel”) by Digi Távközlési és Szolgáltató Kft (“DIGI”) conditionally – with commitments – in May 2018. A few months later, it established that DIGI had intentionally misled HCA officials and therefore revoked the decision and imposed a fine on […]
Time to seek advice over substance
With effect from 1 January 2019 and, in order to address the concerns of the EU Code of Conduct Group, new legislation requiring certain entities to demonstrate economic substance in the jurisdictions in which they are tax resident has come into force in the BVI, Cayman Islands, Guernsey and Jersey. Detailed guidance notes in each […]
Competition Authority created in Angola
By Nuno Ruiz, Miguel Mendes Pereira, Ricardo Bordalo Junqueiro, Joana Pacheco On 21 December 2018, Presidential Decree 313/18 approving the bylaws of the Angolan Competition Regulatory Authority (“CRA”) was published, putting in place the last piece of the Angolan competition law regime. The decree completes the Angolan Competition Act (“ACA”), of 10 May 2018 (see Flash here), and the […]
Geo-blocking – EU Commission fines Guess
On 17 December 2018 the European Commission fined the clothing company Guess in the amount of EUR 39.8 million for restricting retailers from online advertising and selling cross-border to consumers in other Member States – i.e. “geoblocking”. The Commission’s announcement of its fining decision complements the Regulation 2018/302 on unjustified geo-blocking (the “Regulation”), which came […]
Guess’ fine and geo-blocking – What retailers need to know
By Gwendoline Davies, Richard Jaques This briefing highlights the recent anti-competition findings and fine against clothing company Guess, and explain what retailers need to know about new online retail ‘geo-blocking’ rules. Guess’ €40 million* fine Clothing company Guess has been fined almost €40 million by the European Commission (EC) for anti-competitive provisions within its distribution agreements […]
European Commission fines Guess in its ongoing crusade against geoblocking agreements
By Marc Wiggers, Thomas Verstraeten On 17 December 2018, the European Commission (‘Commission’) announced that it had imposed an antitrust fine of EUR 40 million on clothing company Guess for illegally restricting its resellers from using the Guess brand names and trademarks for the purposes of online search advertising and making cross-border sales of Guess […]
Merger control in Romania: International comparative legal guide
By Alina Popescu, Răzvan Pele Relevant Authorities and Legislation Who is/are the relevant merger authority(ies)? The Romanian authority with merger control attributions is the Competition Council (“Council”), which is an autonomous public body. If a concentration raises national security risks, the Romanian Government may forbid the same upon the proposal of the Supreme Council for National Defence […]
Gun jumping in Hungary: The authority imposes another fine amidst stricter enforcement tendencies
By András Nagy Yet another decision indicates that the Hungarian Competition Authority (HCA) is among the more rigorous competition authorities in Europe. It has once again imposed a fine for gun jumping, i.e. the acquisition of control over the target in a transaction already prior to competition law clearance. The HCA imposed the first ever […]
Bulgaria: Competition authority penalises A1 Bulgaria EAD for cancelling agreement
By Galina Petkova With Decision No. 1308 of 22 November 2018, the Commission for the Protection of Competition (the “CPC“) fined A1 Bulgaria EAD (“A1“) BGN 840,340 for cancelling a partnership agreement with its main commercial representative. The CPC decided that the cancellation was effectively a violation of Article 37a (1) of the Protection of Competition Act (the “PCA“), which prohibits abuse of dominant […]
Parallel importation laws in Russia
By David Aylen August 2018 (Moscow): It is important to time stamp this review because the law as to parallel importation in Russia is quickly evolving and the subject is a moving target. After the introduction of Part IV of the Russian Civil Code, the first notable grey market decision was the Porsche case in […]
Cartels in Romania
Government Emergency Ordinance 39/2017 of 31 May 2017 transposed the EU Directive on Antitrust Damages Actions (2014/104/EU) into national law and made a number of other amendments to the Competition Law (21/1996), including as follows: • The definition of an undertaking has been modified. • Undertakings that engage in the modern trade of foodstuffs and […]