European Commission

On 19 September 2018, the European Commission (“Commission”) issued a press release declaring that Luxembourg did not provide illegal State aid to McDonald’s with regards to two tax rulings that resulted in double non-taxation of franchise profits in Luxembourg. The Commission’s three-year-long in-depth investigation established that Luxembourg had merely acted in compliance with its national tax laws and that the double non-taxation was the result of a mismatch between Luxembourg and US tax law, as opposed to a more favourable treatment given to McDonald’s compared to other companies in Luxembourg.

The Commission’s initial concerns

In December 2015, the Commission launched an investigation into McDonald’s Europe Franchising (“MEF”), a EU subsidiary of the US-based McDonald’s Corporation. At issue were two tax rulings regarding MEF, a tax resident of Luxembourg with one Swiss branch and one US branch, that received franchisee royalties from outlets in Europe, Ukraine and Russia.
Continue Reading The European Commission finds no illegal State aid was provided by Luxembourg’s non-taxation of McDonald’s

The European Commission (“Commission”) recently fined Denon & Marantz, Asus, Pioneer and Philips (the “Individual Parties”) a total of EUR 111 million for restricting the ability of online retailers to set retail prices for their products – a hard-core restriction under EU competition law known as “resale price maintenance” or “RPM” (the “Infringement Decisions”). These Infringement Decisions are noteworthy because: (i) they are the first e-commerce infringement decisions since the Commission’s 2017 Final Report on its e-commerce sector inquiry; and (ii) the last ‘traditional’ RPM fine imposed by the Commission was fifteen years ago in Po/Yamaha COMP/37.975 (16 July 2003).
Continue Reading The European Commission Publishes Summary Decisions for On-line Resale Price Maintenance Infringements

The UK Government published its highly-anticipated technical guidance on merger review and anti-competitive activity on 13 September 2018 which will apply in the case of a ‘no-deal’ Brexit (the ‘Guidance’). Although brief, it provides market players with some form of practical advice and insights on what to expect, how cases are likely to be divided between the EU and UK regimes, how UK competition law will develop, and suggests in what ways post-Brexit competition damages actions in the UK Courts may change. This Guidance follows on from the previously released ‘no-deal’ state aid guidance – as was covered in our previous Covington alert – forming part of a larger suite of ‘no-deal’ Brexit guidance papers released by the Government in recent weeks.

The Guidance provides several key pieces of practical advice for businesses regarding different types of competition law processes in the wake of a ‘no-deal’ Brexit.
Continue Reading The UK Government Issues ‘No-deal’ Competition and Merger Guidance

Compliance, and in particular competition compliance, remains at the top of in-house counsel’s agenda. In particular, compliance is fundamental to reducing competition law infringements – “prevention is better than cure” – but in-house counsel often face difficulties in getting the appropriate level of support and budget for effective competition law compliance.

We have recently published an article which puts forward a policy proposal to the European Commission (“Commission”) that would not only support companies in their competition compliance efforts, but also the Commission in its enforcement of EU cartel rules.
Continue Reading Compliance Plus? Proposed fine reductions for audited, strengthened compliance programs

More than 20 years after the adoption of the first European Commission Leniency Notice, the detection and sanctioning of cartels remains a key feature of the enforcement agenda of the European Commission and – the currently still 28 – European Union national competition authorities. Leniency programmes are a crucial tool in uncovering cartels, with a …
Continue Reading Concurrences Article – Leniency and Competition Law: An Overview of EU and National Case Law

On June 21, 2018, the European Commission (“Commission”) started a new investigation to determine whether so-called destination clauses in Qatar Petroleum’s liquefied natural gas (“LNG”) supply contracts with European buyers infringe the European Union (“EU”) antitrust rules.
Continue Reading European Commission Launches New Antitrust Investigation into LNG Destination Clauses

On 15 May 2018, Johan Ysewyn and Maria Jaspers (DG COMP) presented on recent major developments in the area of EU cartel enforcement at the Advanced Competition Law Conference in London.

Their annual dual-presentation covered the traditional three pillars of enforcement, policy and court review. The topics covered in this latest instalment included:

  • A review

…
Continue Reading Advanced Competition Law Conference – Joint Presentation on Cartel Enforcement with Covington’s Johan Ysewyn and DG Competition’s Maria Jaspers

On 30 November, Covington and Laurence Simons co-hosted a seminar on e-commerce in the EU for a variety of General Counsel from different industries.  E-commerce continues to grow rapidly in Europe and is expected to be worth more than €600 billion in 2017.  In this context, companies already active in the EU, or wishing to enter the European market, must familiarise themselves with the potential legal challenges ahead of them.
Continue Reading E-Commerce in the EU, Covington & Laurence Simons General Counsel Seminar

We are now well past the mid-point of Commissioner Vestager’s tenure as European Commissioner for Competition.  Let us assume that – as with all of her predecessors, and regardless of merit – she will not be reappointed for a second term in the post, so that by the end of 2019 we will have a new Competition Commissioner.

What this means, among other things, is that if an antitrust or State aid case has not yet started, then it is in practice impossible to finish it within her term.  That means that the Commissioner’s margin of manœuvre in establishing a legacy is mostly limited to the cases that we already know about.

So what do we know about Commissioner Vestager – and can we start predicting what the next two years of competition enforcement will look like?Continue Reading The Vestager Tenure : Mid-Point or Turning Point?

On 10 May 2017 the European Commission published its Final Report on the E-commerce Sector Inquiry (the “Report”).  The Commission’s E-commerce Sector Inquiry, launched on 6 May 6 2015 as part of the Digital Single Market Strategy, gathered evidence from nearly 1,900 companies connected with the online sale of consumer goods and digital content.  The Commission published its initial findings on geo-blocking in an issues paper in March 2016, and its Preliminary Report in September 2016.  The Final Report sets out the Commission’s definitive findings from the Sector Inquiry.

Continue Reading The European Commission Publishes its Final Report on the E-commerce Sector Inquiry