A blog about competition law and policy
In line with recent developments in other countries, the ACM’s chairman Martijn Snoep has expressed a desire for new competences to review relatively small mergers (in size) that fall below the notification thresholds of the Dutch Competition Act (DCA).[1] In the ACM’s view, mergers that fall below these thresholds can nonetheless cause competition problems. In … Continue reading The ACM’s mission to plug the “small acquisitions gap”
To ensure a steady supply of football talent, professional football clubs must do their bit to invest in grassroots football. To incentivise this investment, UEFA and several national football associations introduced “home-grown player rules”, which dictate that a minimum number of players on the match sheet must be home-grown. However, a player, supported by Royal … Continue reading Royal Antwerp – Breaking new ground in antitrust in labour markets
Competition law infringements often cause financial harm to large groups of consumers or businesses, who would individually be unwilling or unable to pay to claim compensation for that harm. This is why such groups often make use of third-party funding, known as litigation funding, which is offered by specialised investment funds who pay for the … Continue reading The evolving framework for litigation funding: PACCAR, the DMCC Bill, the CAT…and Mr Bates!
Competition law in sports is full of interesting paradoxes. When I was at the Competition and Markets Authority, the news around the creation of the Super League broke, and many stakeholders contacted us because, they said, surely this is a cartel between the participating teams. Of course there was a question then about whether competition … Continue reading Super League – From “legislative bomb” to judicial bombshell
Last week’s Liothyronine judgment in the UK’s Competition Appeal Tribunal (CAT) is essential reading for antitrust practitioners. The CAT upheld the CMA finding of an abuse of dominance but reduced the total fine from £101m to £84m. Liothyronine is one of several excessive pricing cases the CMA has brought in recent years following concerns about … Continue reading CAT’s Liothyronine judgment is notable beyond excessive pricing cases
Sprint races can be decided by hundredths of a second. But the sprinter who pushes off before the starting gun sounds “jumps the gun” and faces harsh punishment. In our never-ending attempts to make competition law sound cool, practitioners refer to the completion of a deal before mandatory clearance is obtained as “gun jumping”, even … Continue reading Draconian but unavoidable? Illumina’s quest for GRAIL ends in a record fine
How UK competition authorities might help the central bank execute its monetary policy to fight inflation by making instant access savings markets more competitive
Over the weekend, it became clear that UBS agreed to buy Credit Suisse after a hectic weekend of negotiations brokered by Swiss regulator FINMA to safeguard Switzerland’s banking system and attempt to prevent a crisis spreading across global markets. The news followed the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank and the rescue of First Republic Bank … Continue reading Bank bailouts – The antitrust approach
“Formalistic”, “reductionist”, “selective and unbalanced or even deficient”. Advocate General Juliane Kokott did not mince her words in last week’s Opinion on the General Court’s judgment in CK Telecoms, in which she asks the Court of Justice to annul the judgment and refer the case back to the General Court. An AG Opinion is an … Continue reading Three/O2 – EU merger control test clarified? (And lions in Regent’s Park)
What links a multiple sclerosis drug ingredient, trains tickets in the South of England and iPhone batteries? Very little you might say? But in fact these subjects are all bound up in what some believe to be an ongoing extension to the frontiers on the law on abuse of dominance. Just how far does the … Continue reading Misinformation, disparagement, opacity and throttling – how far does the ‘special responsibility’ go?
The Thicket 