The rise of artificial intelligence (AI) and its widespread availability raises questions regarding how it might facilitate EU competition law violations. ...more
2024 saw a significant increase in the total fines imposed in abuse of dominance cases compared to 2023, reversing a trend of decline in recent years. The rise in fine volumes was spread across all regions of the world, with...more
2024 saw a significant increase in overall global fines for antitrust enforcement, with total penalties for the jurisdictions surveyed in our report at USD6.7 billion, over double that of 2023 (USD2.9bn) and substantially...more
The "European Antitrust Bimonthly Bulletin" breaks down the major antitrust developments in Europe during the past two months into concise and actionable takeaways....more
European Commission (EC) Unconditionally Approves Nvidia's Acquisition of Run:ai - On December 20, 2024, the EC unconditionally approved Nvidia's acquisition of Run:ai. Run:ai develops software that helps customers...more
On October 24, 2024, the European Court of Justice (ECJ) confirmed the annulment by the General Court (GC) of the European Commission’s (EC) decision to impose a EUR 1.06 billion fine on Intel for the abuse of a dominant...more
In its 18 September 2024 ruling, the General Court of the European Union annulled the €1.5 billion fine that the European Commission had imposed on Google in 2019 for allegedly abusing its dominant position in online search...more
The European Commission (EC) has launched a formal investigation under its abuse of dominance rules into US life sciences company Zoetis in the area of novel veterinary medicines. The EC alleges that the discontinuation of a...more
The European Commission has opened a formal investigation into whether Zoetis, a US animal health company, has acted in breach of the abuse of dominance rules by terminating development of a pipeline drug: when does...more
In Short - The Situation: On 27 March 2023, the European Commission ("Commission") published a Communication amending its 2008 Guidance on enforcement priorities concerning exclusionary abuses ("amended 2008 Guidance...more
The long-awaited European Court of Justice's judgment in Towercast confirmed that national competition authorities (and national courts) can apply abuse of dominance rules to mergers that did not trigger EU and national...more
As we enter 2023, the European Commission is redoubling its efforts to scrutinise transactions on a variety of bases. The focus has been on the digital sector for some time, but the impact of the Commission’s expanding...more
The European Court of Justice (ECJ) issued a judgment on June 22, 2022 (C-267/20), regarding an action for damages, based on Directive 2014/104/EU (Directive), seeking compensation for the damage caused by the truck cartel....more
There are relatively few changes in the draft regulations implementing the revised Anti-Monopoly Law in the areas of abuse of dominance, abuse of IPRs, and abuse of administrative powers. While mainly platform operators are...more
In a decision dated March 9, 2022 (No. 19/19747), the Paris Court of Appeal ruled on a competition damage claim action for abuse of dominant position brought against Schneider Electric France and Schneider Electric SA by a...more
On January 26, 2022, the EU General Court (the Court) annulled the European Commission’s (the Commission) decision that Intel had abused its dominant position regarding its x86 central processing unit (CPU) computer chips and...more
On November 10, 2021, the European Union’s General Court issued a decision largely upholding the European Commission’s finding that Google abused its dominant position by favoring results from its own comparison-shopping...more
The European Commission (EC) issued a EUR 875 million (USD 1.05 billion) cartel fine against German carmakers, namely BMW, Audi, Porsche, and Volkswagen (the latter three are all part of the Volkswagen Group). Daimler was...more
The Trade and Cooperation Agreement (TCA) governing post-Brexit trade relations between the UK and the EU includes provisions regulating EU-UK antitrust enforcement and cooperation effective 1 January 2021....more
EU/EFTA/ECN – On 23 March 2020, the competition authorities in the European Competition Network (the European Commission, the EFTA Surveillance Authority, and the national competition authorities of the EU/EEA) issued a Joint...more
McDermott’s Annual European Competition Review summarizes key developments in European competition rules. During the previous year, several new regulations, notices and guidelines were issued by the European Commission. There...more
EU COMPETITION LAW AND ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE - Artificial Intelligence (AI) and big data are playing an increasingly important role in the economy. Competition law will have to evolve if it is to reconcile the positive...more
The European Commission (EC) has found, on a prima facie basis, that Broadcom abused its dominant position. In order to avert the risk of serious and irreparable damage to competition, Broadcom has been ordered to cease its...more
On April 4, 2019, the European Commission published a report1 prepared by three special advisers (the Advisers) appointed by EU Competition Commissioner Margrethe Vestager to explore how EU competition policy should evolve in...more
With its recent imposition of a record 4.3 billion EUR fine against Google for abuse of dominant position, the European Commission may have cemented its reputation for taking an aggressive enforcement stance against US tech...more