Sometimes 2min is plenty, even for law
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Sometimes 2 min is plenty,
even for law.
even for law.
After its Phase II review, the European Commission blocked Illumina’s acquisition of GRAIL, which was approved in the US last year, over concerns that the deal would stifle innovation and reduce choice in the emerging market for blood-based early cancer detection tests. The Commission found that Illumina, a world leader in DNA sequencing, would have both the ability and the incentive to engage in foreclosure strategies against GRAIL’s competitors. The block of the USD 7.1 billion merger marks the first prohibition by the Commission that is based solely on vertical concerns.
The EU’s General Court has largely upheld the European Commission’s Google Android decision, which imposed a EUR 4.343 billion fine on Google for imposing unlawful restrictions on manufacturers of Android mobile devices and mobile network operators in order to consolidate the dominant position of its search engine, in some cases since 1 January 2011. However, the Court annulled the part of the decision relating to Google’s revenue-sharing payments to manufacturers to exclusively pre-install Google Search and reduced the fine to EUR 4.125 billion.
According to the non-binding opinion of AG Rantos, a member of the European Court of Justice nominated to assess GDPR issues relating to Facebook’s parent company, Meta, the competition authorities, while not competent to establish a violation of GDPR, may examine a company’s compliance with GDPR when investigating a potential abuse-of-dominance case.
In one of the largest and potentially most impactful transactions of the decade, Microsoft has agreed to acquire the US video game holding company Activision Blizzard for approximately USD 69 billion. Several different competition authorities are assessing the transaction, including the UK’s Competition and Markets Authority (CMA). In this regard, the CMA announced that it is considering a Phase II investigation and is seeking remedies from the transaction parties to alleviate its competition concerns. You can find our article on recent competition developments in the gaming sector here.
China’s State Administration for Market Regulation announced its decision to conditionally approve a joint venture between two state-owned undertakings, Shanghai Airport Group and China Eastern Airlines Logistics. The Chinese authority noted that there is a horizontal overlap between the parties in the market for cargo terminal services as well as a vertical relationship, and that this joint venture runs the risk of harming competition at China’s busiest airport. In this context, the parties are required (i) not to share competitively sensitive information, (ii) to keep their offices and IT systems separate, (iii) to remain independent concerning important business issues such as finance, personnel, production, procurement, R&D, pricing and sales, (iv) to provide services on FRAND[1] terms and not to treat downstream customers differently in terms of price and quantity for the next eight years and (v) to maintain existing contracts and renew them, when necessary, on equal or better terms for the next five years.
As noted in our June 2022 newsletter, the Portuguese Competition Authority has been looking into hub-and-spoke agreements in the retail sector for some time. In its ninth infringement decision, the authority fined supermarket chains Modelo Continente, Pingo Doce and Auchan, as well as alcoholic beverage supplier Active Brands, for acting as a common supplier in order to fix product prices.
The European Commission announced that it has adopted “Guidelines on the application of EU competition law to collective agreements” regarding the working conditions of self-employed people.
Bulgaria’s Commission for the Protection of Competition has launched an investigation against the country’s leading fuel distributor and trader, LUKOIL Bulgaria, which is controlled by Russia’s LUKOIL, on allegations that LUKOIL Bulgaria abuses its dominant position by exerting a price squeeze on the wholesale motor fuel market.
The Czech Republic’s Office for the Protection of Competition has fined the meal voucher suppliers Sodexo, Edenred and Up Česká nearly EUR 11.4 million in total for coordinating their terms of trade towards retail chains between 2004 and 2018 regarding the maximum number of meal coupons that can be accepted per purchase.
Argentina competition authority CNDC seeks remedies in WarnerMedia/Discovery
The CNDC has concerns that WarnerMedia’s acquisition by Discovery from AT&T would have anti-competitive horizontal effects in the markets for children’s TV programming, movies and TV shows, and non-fiction entertainment. The deal also carries conglomerate effect concerns, considering the variety and dominance of the TV channels offered by the parties. CNDC is also concerned whether the merged entity would engage in input foreclosure and limit the availability of its content.
[1] Fair, Reasonable, and Non-Discriminatory
For further information please contact Bulut Girgin, Counsel, at bgirgin@gentemizerozer.com, Simru Tayfun, Associate, at stayfun@gentemizerozer.com, or Orçun Horozoğlu, Associate, at ohorozog@gentemizerozer.com.
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