EU Competition Law Newsletter

Below are links to EU Competition Law Newsletters that Cleary publishes each month.

2022

April

Highlights

Update on Europe’s Digital Regulations – What’s Next For Big Tech?

On March 24, 2022, the European Parliament, the Commission and the EU Member States reached an agreement on the text of the Digital Markets Act. And on April 23, 2022, the same set of EU bodies reached political agreement on the final text of the Digital Services Act. The new legislations will now make their way through the final procedural hurdles over the summer. Once these are cleared, the texts will come into force, creating a slate of new obligations that are designed to shape digital content and competition in Europe. Meanwhile, the Commission is progressing the text of a third law – the Data Act – that is expected to soon follow the same legislative process. This article provides an overview of the purpose and status of these three legislative pillars of the Union’s increasingly active approach to digital regulation.

Airfreight Cartel: General Court Partially Annuls Commission Decision and Reduces Fines

On March 30, 2022, after a decade of litigation in over a dozen separate cases, the General Court partially annulled the Commission’s March 17, 2017 decision imposing a €776 million fine on air carriers for coordinated practices and agreements relating to air freight transport between 1999 and 2006. The General Court upheld the Commission’s decision although, in six of 13 appeals lodged against the decision, the Court found that the Commission had infringed procedural rights and/or failed to establish the participation of certain air carriers in certain parts of the infringement. The General Court reduced the corresponding fines and dismissed the remaining seven appeals in their entirety.

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News

Commission Updates

Revision of Regulation 1/2003 and the Commission’s Leniency Policy

The Commission has recently revealed its plan to review two foundations of EU competition law enforcement: Regulation 1/2003 and the Leniency Policy.

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Court Updates

Advocate General Szpunar’s Opinion on Disclosure of Evidence Created ex novo

On April 7, 2022, Advocate General Szpunar delivered his opinion on the interpretation of Article 5(1) of Directive 2014/104 and on the scope of its rules on evidence production. The Advocate General called on the Court of Justice to allow national courts to require defendants to disclose evidence of a type that would require the defendant to compile or classify information rather than merely produce existing material. The Advocate General considered that, as long as national courts limit such disclosure of so-called “ex novo evidence” to relevant, necessary, and proportionate requests, this interpretation is justified by the need for effective implementation of EU competition law. The position is unsurprising but—if upheld to by the Court of Justice—may further increase the burden of follow-on litigation on companies.

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Please click here to read the complete Newsletter.

2021