The DMA seeks to capture gatekeeper conduct. For that, the regulation applies to those targets of the regulation satisfying the legal category of a gatekeeper. If an undertaking is not a gatekeeper as per a designation decision issued by the European Commission (EC), then it will not remain captured by the regulatory instrument. In September 2023, the EC designated six gatekeepers with respect to twenty-two core platform services (CPSs) and left the fate of four CPSs belonging to Apple and Microsoft in the air. The designated gatekeepers and their corresponding CPSs all directly followed the q ..read more

We are happy to inform you that the latest issue of the journal is now available and includes the following contributions:   Michael G. Aguinaldo, Reflections and Musings from My First Year as Chairperson of a Young Competition Authority When the Philippines passed into law its competition act in 2015, it was one of the last countries to enact such law in the region. Its competition authority was formed a year later. Eight years since, and the Philippine Competition Commission’s (PCCs) implementation of the law remains an uphill climb. As a new set of leadership took the helm of the Commi ..read more

The Digital Markets Act (DMA) entails a change in the narrative of the punitive framework applied to digital dominant undertakings under EU competition law. At least, that’s what the European’s digital strategy proposed it to be. The failure of antitrust followed a new paradigm in applying per se rules to gatekeepers, based on cooperative-like mechanisms triggering trust relationships between the targets of the regulation and the public authority. Well, that illusion has vanished. The rare vision of DMA enforcement based on cooperative iterations with gatekeepers was only a dream, past the wit ..read more

Introduction Nowadays, it is not uncommon for Spanish courts to have to rule on disputes where there is uniformity in the facts and the applicable legal rules. In civil courts, mass litigation arose as a result of nullity suits filed by consumers in banking and financial matters regarding contracts for the subscription of banking products (preferred shares, subordinated debentures, swaps, etc.) and for the abusiveness of certain clauses incorporated in mortgage loans (floor, IRPH, multi-currency, early maturity, expenses, etc.) or in credit card contracts (usury). The proliferation of lawsuits ..read more

Introduction By judgment of 10 April 2024, the General Court (GC) annulled  Decision 19.4.2018 –  SA.37433 of the European Commission (EC) finding that Danish legislation concerning charges for wastewater treatment did not constitute State aid. In my view, the GC misapplied the Market Economy Operator Principle (MEOP) in this case when it assessed the legislation and the GC wrongly considered the EC Notice on the Notion of State aid as a self-limitation for the EC when applying Article 107(1) TFEU. This was the second time that the GC had to consider DBF’s appeal. The ECJ annulled th ..read more

2023 proved another fruitful year for the Belgian competition law scene. The ambitious agenda of the Belgian Competition Authority (“BCA”) resulted in a busy and impressive enforcement record. To sum up a couple of highlights in a single sentence, the BCA: was the first competition authority to apply the landmark Towercast judgment, conducted several sectoral investigations, issued three antitrust infringement decisions, imposed conditions in two mergers, made a referral request to the European Commission under Art. 22 of the EU Merger Regulation (in Qualcomm / Autotalks) and, last but not lea ..read more

Although 2023 was not a year of significant changes to the competition legislative landscape in Cyprus, it witnessed the implementation of competition law developments from 2022, in both substantive and ancillary legislation.   Regulatory background In Cyprus, competition law is governed by the Protection of Competition Law of 2022 (Law No. 13(I)/2022). Law 13(I)/2022, in conjunction with the Control of Concentrations of Undertakings Law of 2014 (Law No. 83(I)/2014), establishes the rules and principles that have as an objective the maintenance of effective competition within the Cyprus m ..read more

In light of recent information about new probes under the DMA and the DSA, and the growing interest in enforcement of the draft AI Act, we decided to explore what investigatory powers are available to the European Commission and local authorities under these regulations, and more specifically how the enforcing authorities can conduct dawn raids to collect information about practices infringing the said regulations. This note examines what triggers such inspections, who can be inspected, and how such inspections differ from what we know in competition law enforcement.   Introduction & ..read more

In a preliminary ruling issued on 14 March 2024, the District Court in Warsaw (DCW) granted Ceneo Ltd. an interim injunction in respect of non-monetary claims against Google Ireland Ltd. to cease acts of unfair competition on the Polish territory, consisting in the creation of market entry barriers for the plaintiff. This ruling precedes (temporarily secures) Ceneo’s future lawsuit under the Act of 16 April 1993 on combating unfair competition (ACUC) – which, in Polish law, is classified under the broader heading of competition law – dealing with cases where competition exists but takes social ..read more

On 30 April 2024, AG Szpunar issued his Opinion in Case C-650/22, FIFA v BZ. This gives the Court an opportunity to revisit and apply the December 2023 trilogy of sports cases decided by the Grand Chamber, which I have discussed in the Revista de Derecho Comunitario Europeo and which have been nicely contextualized by Jan Zglinski. I beg the reader’s indulgence: I shall analyse this Opinion and related fragments of the Grand Chamber trilogy by telling a story of how a fictitious national judge might respond to this case law.   Ferguson v Galaxia Association of Snooker Players Galaxia is a ..read more