Four years after a landmark decision by the German Federal Cartel Office (FCO) (decision of 6 February 2019, B6-22/16) finding that a major technology company acted abusively due to an alleged General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) infringement, the European Court of Justice (ECJ) recently confirmed the FCO’s decision in that, depending on the circumstances of … Continue Reading
On December 5, 2018, the French Competition Authority (FCA) fined six large household appliance manufacturers a total of €189 million for agreeing on price increases charged to end-consumers and commercial terms applicable to their kitchen installers. This is the tenth highest fine imposed for cartel activities by the FCA since 2000. Members of our EU, Competition … Continue Reading
On November 5, the United States reimposed the final tranche of sanctions on Iran, which had been lifted pursuant to the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (“JCPOA”) in 2016. The vast majority of these sanctions are “secondary sanctions,” being those which target non-U.S. persons and companies even where there is no U.S. nexus (e.g. the … Continue Reading
In the early hours of Tuesday, 7 August 2018, and as foreshadowed by President Trump’s announcement on 8 May 2018, the United States reimposed certain secondary sanctions on Iran, being those which apply to non-U.S. persons. The imposition of these sanctions follows the conclusion of a 90-day wind-down period and, as mentioned in our previous … Continue Reading
On 10 May 2017, the European Commission published its final report on its two-year e-commerce sector inquiry (the Final Report). Many of the conclusions in the Final Report closely follow the Commission’s preliminary report, which were analysed and summarised in our last client alert on the e-commerce inquiry, and were also featured in our webinar … Continue Reading