In a judgment published earlier today, the Supreme Court of Ireland has confirmed that some forms of collective agreements may be extended erga omnes across economic sectors, thereby helping to bring the benefits of collective bargaining to more people working in Ireland. This note gives a brief background to the colourful history of collective sectoral…
The promise of 5G Fifth-generation wireless systems – commonly known as 5G – are a big leap forward for mobile communications. The innovations connected to 5G could be worth around $13.2 trillion over the next 15 years for the industry and public sector. By 2025, deploying the new technology could generate €213 billion in revenue…
The European Commission has finally disclosed its intention to challenge the Apple judgement delivered by the General Court on the 15th of July.[1]General Court, 15 July 2020, Apple Sales International and Apple Operations Europe v Commission, Cases T-778/16 and T-892/16, ECLI:EU:T:2020:338. Although it has been a difficult choice, considering the highly political implications of the matter,…
Introduction Among its countless repercussions, the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic had disastrous consequences on the economy, affecting both supply chains and the demand curve in numerous markets. Market conditions changed abruptly due to anti-COVID restrictions and the health emergency caused the demand for numerous products and services to decline, whereas the request for others,…
A welcome initiative Pressure has been increasing on businesses to contribute proactively to achieving climate and broader sustainability objectives. Companies consider that such initiatives often require cooperation with others, in order to get such projects successfully off the ground (for example, due to a minimum scale being required and/or due to a first mover disadvantage)….
5G is the most advanced technology in mobile communications. In fall 2018, at the forefront in Europe, Italy arranged a successful multi-billion euro auction for 5G spectrum. On the side, the administration allowed a few operators to convert old WiMax licenses to 5G usage, for a few million euro. A legal battle arose. In November…
On 8 October 2019, Margrethe Vestager passed the test and has been approved by the European Parliament (Parliament) to become the new European Commission’s (Commission) Executive Vice President for digital and commissioner for competition. The European Parliament is due to vote on the proposed College of Commissioners as a whole on 23 October 2019. If…
Last week the Dutch government made international headlines with its share acquisition in Air France-KLM Holding (increasing its stake to 14%). According to the Dutch government the acquisition was justified to have a seat at the table when it comes to the role of the Netherlands (read Schiphol) as an aviation hub to protect the…
In its first judgment regarding the European Commission’s recent fiscal State aid decisions, the EU General Court (GC) last week annulled the Commission’s decision of 11 January 2016 on Belgium’s so-called “excess profit rulings”. The exemption for “excess” profits The case concerns a specific provision in Belgian tax law, which provides for the possibility to…
Speaking today on the centre stage at the Web Summit in Lisbon, and introduced as the “most important woman in the world for tech”, I heard today from EU Competition Commissioner Margrethe Vestager, who emphasised the role of technology players in promoting fairness, privacy and democracy. Consistent with the “fair play in tech” message she…
Is the Commission stricter than the IAAF? The European Athletics Championships finished this Sunday. Some athletes “jumped the gun” by beginning a race before the official signal was given. Those athletes might debate with a referee whether they actually left before the starting shot or not, but no doubt they all know exactly what gun-jumping…
On April 19, 2018, the European Court of Justice (“ECJ”) delivered a judgment dealing with the notions of abusive discrimination and competitive advantage under Article 102(2)(c) TFEU. The case concerned abusive price discrimination by a dominant company, between two customers competing in a downstream market (so-called non-exclusionary abusive discrimination). While ostensibly attempting to adapt the…
While barriers to close down national boundaries are being raised again worldwide, EU institutions keep fighting unjustified geo-blocking and online cross-border stops to trade. Regulation No. 2018/302 (“Geo-blocking Regulation”) bans unjustified geo-blocking and other forms of territorial discrimination that prevent consumers from freely buying on online platforms. The Regulation was adopted on February 28, 2018 and entered…
On January 24, 2017, the European Commission announced that it had fined Qualcomm EUR 997,439,000. The Commission thinks that Qualcomm had abused its dominant position to become Apple’s sole supplier of long term evolution (“LTE“) baseband chipsets. The abuse was allegedly committed through exclusive deals, which lasted from 2011 to 2016. Baseband chipsets are key components in smartphones and tablets, which enable connection…
Ever since the European Court of Justice brought the rule-making activity of sports federations within the scope of EU law, the European competition rules have emerged as a unique instrument to assert control over sports’ transnational private regulatory power. Other than in the area of revenue-generating activities related to sports (e.g. ticket sales arrangements or…
On Saint Nicholas’ birthday 2017 (6 December), the Court of Justice (the Court) held that selective distribution agreements, which prevent authorised distributors from using unauthorised third-party (online) platforms to sell luxury goods can in principle be compatible with Article 101(1) of the Treaty of the Functioning of the European Union (TFEU); the prohibition on anti-competitive…
Since 2013, the European Commission has taken an increasing interest in Member States’ practices of granting tax benefits to mainly multinational undertakings by means of individual tax rulings or specifically tailored tax agreements. In this respect, the Commission in October 2015 found that the Netherlands has given unlawful aid to Starbucks and Luxemburg to Fiat…
While the symposium on Application of Competition Policy to Technology and IP Licensing hosted by the Center for Transnational Law and Business at the USC Gould School of Law on 10 November 2017 was, for many reasons, worthy of a suite of scholarly articles (I particularly look forward to Professor Jonathan Barnett’s upcoming article in…
On September 14, 2017, the EU Court of Justice issued a preliminary ruling in Case C-177/16, Akka-Laa, on excessive pricing in the collective management of copyright licences. In 2013, the Latvian Competition Council fined Akka-Laa for abusing its dominance by imposing too high rates for its services. Akka-Laa is a copyright management organization. It enjoyed a…
