Competitive Edge: Competition & EU Law - December 2022

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In focus

The Draft EU Commission Notice on Relevant Market Definition – Fit for the future?

On 8 November 2022 the European Commission published its draft Notice on the definition of relevant markets for competition law purposes and launched a public consultation which will run until 13 January 2023. All interested parties have one last chance to submit their views on the Notice, and potentially impact the final version. The Notice provides guidance based on the case law of the European Court of Justice and the decisional practice of the Commission. It takes into account recent market developments following a consultation of stakeholders on whether the Market Definition Notice 1997 still functions effectively.

A lot has changed since 1997. This article covers the changes in accordance with the structure of the Notice.

Read the full story

EU

Leniency - European Commission published new FAQ guidance on the immunity and fine reduction 2006 notice

For more information, please contact Jose Rivas or Ignacio Villalba Navarro.

Finland

FCCA has published policy brief on state grants

For more information, please contact Petteri Metsä-Tokila or Maria Karpathakis.

France

The French Competition Authority sanctions an association for having implemented a cartel

For more information, please contact Claire Burlin and Thomas Oster.

Hungary

Focus on green claims

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For more information, please contact Dániel Aranyi, Gábor Kutai or Rebeka Szopkó.

Italy

Liberalisation of the Italian electricity market: Italian Supreme Court judges rule that Enel conduct was not abusive and annul fine of EUR 93 million

Read the full story

For more information, please contact Federico Marini Balestra, Lucia Antonazzi or Chiara Horgan.

Netherlands

ACM’s cloud services market study flags competition problems and prompts for amendments of the Data Act proposal

Read the full story

For more information, please contact Pauline Kuipers or Manuela Cox.

Poland

Polish Competition Authority fines CCTV appliances manufacturer for dawn raid obstruction

Read the full story

For more information, please contact Szymon Golebiowski or Marcin Alberski.

Spain

The GVH has monitored dark patterns in online sales of airline tickets within a sweep

Read the full story

For more information, please contact Candela Sotés.

UK

The impact of the new VBER and VABEO rules for franchises

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For more information, please contact Ariane Le Strat or Saskia King.

Bird & Bird news, articles & publications

What Does The Genius V Sportradar Settlement Mean For Sports Data Rights Holders?

It was recently announced that the long-standing dispute between Genius Sport and Sportradar has come to an end. The parties have now settled the case. In this article, our experts active in the Sports sector - Competition Legal Director Dr. Saskia King, IP partner Toby Bond, Commercial and Regulatory partner Andy Danson and Commercial associate Andrew Cox - consider the implications.

Read more on the LawInSport website

This article has been published on LawInSport, the world's leading sports law knowledge hub and global community, which provides practically focused expert analysis and commentary on the latest legal developments in sport.

129th GCLC Lunch Talk

Selected topics on the future Horizontal Block Exemption and Guidelines: Information Exchange

On 9 Decemer Brussels-based EU Competition partner José Rivas moderated a discussion on Information Exchange hosted by the College of Europe and the Global Competition Law Center
(GCLC), with the following speakers:

• Annemarie ter Heegde (Deputy Head of unit, DG Competition, European Commission)
• Xavier Boutin (Partner, Positive Competition)

The GCLC organizes monthly lunch talks in Brussels on current topics of competition law and economics, providing a discussion platform for private practitioners and competition officials.

Read more here

Logistics for Europe Forum

On 23 November EU Competition partner Anne Federle moderated a session at the Logistics for Europe Forum in Brussels. The theme of this first joint conference of three leading organisations in the logistics sector was 'Towards more resilient and competitive supply chains.'

Anne's session dealt with competition regulation reform in the maritime transport sector and involved a roundtable discussion attended by Henrik Mørch, Director of Services, DG COMP, European Commission, who is currently overseeing the ongoing review of the Consortia Block Exemption Regulation (CBER).

Find out more here