The Court of Justice of the EU (the Court) has overturned the General Court’s judgment in Illumina/Grail, effectively putting an end to the EC’s revised Article 22 policy approach for below-threshold mergers. Under this...more
9/6/2024
/ Acquisitions ,
Antitrust Division ,
EU ,
EU Merger Directive ,
EUMR ,
European Commission ,
Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) ,
Global Dealmaking ,
Member State ,
Mergers ,
Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union (TFEU)
Due to the increased importance of sustainability, environmental protection and social factors in recent years, the luxury industry has found itself at a crossroads of tradition and transformation. Once characterized...more
9/3/2024
/ Climate Change ,
Compliance ,
Due Diligence ,
Environmental Social & Governance (ESG) ,
EU ,
False Statements ,
Fashion Industry ,
Greenwashing ,
Human Rights ,
Luxury Goods ,
Misleading Statements ,
Pollution Control ,
Popular ,
Proposed Legislation ,
SFDR ,
Supply Chain ,
Sustainability
M&A in the agricultural sector received a boost in the first quarter of 2024. Deal value rose by more than 600 percent year on year from US$820 million in the first quarter of 2023 to US$5.87 billion in the first three months...more
Until now, the European Commission's (EC) antitrust focus on labour-related issues has been timid. This may soon change. The EC has recently published a policy brief on labour markets, explaining that in its view, wage-fixing...more
5/23/2024
/ Anti-Competitive ,
Antitrust Division ,
Competition ,
Corporate Counsel ,
EU ,
European Commission ,
International Labor Laws ,
No-Poaching ,
Regulatory Reform ,
Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union (TFEU) ,
Wage-Fixing
In yet another twist in the Illumina/Grail saga, Advocate General Emiliou has challenged the European Commission's approach to calling-in certain non-reportable transactions for review. The final judgment will be delivered by...more
On 7 December 2023, the EC published new guidelines on when farmers and agriculture related businesses can, subject to certain conditions, enter into cooperation agreements on sustainability without breaching EU competition...more
On 9 November 2023, the European Court of Justice ("ECJ") confirmed that the European Commission ("EC") was right to impose two separate fines on Altice for breaching standstill rules and failing to notify its acquisition of...more
Merger and acquisition (M&A) transactions are facing ever longer regulatory reviews and an increasingly uncertain outcome. Less than a decade ago, it seemed we were on a clear path to substantial international convergence,...more
The importance of environmental, social, governance ("ESG"), in particular from the perspective of consumers, stakeholders and regulators, is growing across all industries, and the consumer & retail industry is no exception....more
On July 6, 2023, the German Parliament passed the 11th amendment to the German Act Against Restrictions of Competition ("ARC"), substantially expanding the Federal Cartel Office's ("FCO") enforcement powers.
The reform...more
The European Court of Justice (“ECJ”) has ruled that Hungary’s foreign investment screening law is incompatible with EU law, in particular the freedom of establishment enshrined in Article 54 TFEU. In striking down a...more
The EU Court of Justice in the CK Telecoms1 ruling has addressed key questions of EU merger control, including the standard of proof for the European Commission to challenge a merger, the assessment of mergers below the...more
The fact that the European Commission (EC) classified resale price maintenance as a hardcore restriction under its Vertical Block Exemption Regulation does not mean that it automatically violates EU competition law as a "by...more
The European Commission ("EC") has published its final revised Horizontal Cooperation Guidelines and adopted new R&D and Specialisation Block Exemption Regulations (HBERs). The EC's aim is to provide more guidance for...more
The German takeover market is declining and has shown clear signs of having been affected by the current economic and geopolitical environment. The number of takeovers and the total offer volume have both fallen...more
6/20/2023
/ Acquisitions ,
Delisting ,
EU ,
Germany ,
Global Market ,
Investment ,
Mergers ,
Publicly-Traded Companies ,
Shareholders ,
Stock Markets ,
Takeovers
The European Commission ("Commission") is relentless in its fight against Greenwashing and the misrepresentation of sustainability impacts or benefits of a company’s products or actions. Following the global ESG trend and the...more
5/23/2023
/ Advertising ,
Audits ,
Debt ,
Enforcement ,
Environmental Social & Governance (ESG) ,
Equity Securities ,
EU ,
European Commission ,
Germany ,
Greenwashing ,
Investment ,
Liability ,
Misrepresentation ,
Regulatory Requirements ,
Retailers ,
Risk Mitigation ,
SFDR ,
Sustainability ,
Unfair Competition
Advocate General Anthony Michael Collins has proposed that the European Court of Justice uphold the General Court's Altice judgment. In his Opinion, he considered that the entering into certain types of pre-closing covenants...more
5/11/2023
/ Antitrust Division ,
Antitrust Provisions ,
Belgium ,
Competition ,
EU ,
EUMR ,
European Commission ,
European Court of Justice (ECJ) ,
Gun-Jumping ,
Merger Controls ,
Mergers ,
Proportionality ,
Transparency ,
Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union (TFEU)
The European Commission ("Commission") has adopted a package of revised legal texts aimed at simplifying the EU merger review process. The package expands the categories of cases that may be eligible for the simplified...more
The European Commission has proposed a directive on regulating so-called 'Green Claims', that lays down detailed rules on the substantiation, communication and verification of voluntary environmental claims and environmental...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
On 8 November 2022, the European Commission launched a public consultation on its draft revised Market Definition Notice. The new Notice provides detailed explanatory guidance based on recent case law of the European...more
In an unprecedented double-strike, the German government recently blocked two transactions pertaining to Chinese investments in German semiconductor facilities. Just two weeks before, the cabinet had already intervened...more
11/17/2022
/ Canada ,
CFIUS ,
China ,
EU ,
European Commission ,
Foreign Direct Investment ,
Germany ,
Investment ,
Investors ,
National Security ,
Prohibited Transactions ,
Semiconductors ,
UK
Advocate General Kokott has found that the General Court erred in law in requiring the European Commission to show anti-competitive effects of a merger with “strong probability” and that the scope of its judicial review was...more
10/28/2022
/ Anti-Competitive ,
Competition ,
EU ,
European Commission ,
European Court of Justice (ECJ) ,
Investment ,
Judicial Review ,
Mergers ,
Standard of Proof ,
Telecommunications ,
UK
Advocate General Juliane Kokott has proposed that the EU Court of Justice should find that competition authorities have the power to apply Article 102 TFEU to corporate transactions that are not reportable, and test under...more
On 18 May and 22 June 2022, the EU General Court upheld two European Commission prohibition decisions. Both judgments endorsed the European Commission's assessment of the mergers at issue, recognising a broad margin of...more
9/19/2022
/ Appeals ,
Buyers ,
Competition ,
Declaratory Judgments ,
EU ,
European Commission ,
European Court of Justice (ECJ) ,
European Merger Control Regulation ,
Merger Controls ,
Mergers ,
Remedies ,
Standard of Proof ,
Standard of Review