On September 14, 2022, the European Parliament (the Parliament) adopted its position on revised amendments to the Renewable Energy Directive (Recast) 2018 (RED II), amongst other things, proposing requirements for renewable...more
9/16/2022
/ Carbon Emissions ,
Clean Energy ,
Climate Change ,
Electricity ,
Energy Projects ,
Energy Sector ,
EU ,
Green Energy ,
Hydrogen Power ,
Power Plants ,
Renewable Energy
Against the backdrop of drastically increased gas purchase prices and their impact on large German gas importers, and in anticipation of an even further escalation by Russia of the gas supply disruption linked to the war in...more
Against the backdrop of drastically increased gas purchase prices and their impact on large German gas importers, and in anticipation of an even further escalation by Russia of the gas supply disruption linked to the war in...more
The new federal government has presented ambitious framework conditions for decarbonizing the German economy through hydrogen, aiming to position Germany at the center of a global hydrogen economy. German industry expects...more
Welcome to the 2019 Shearman & Sterling Antitrust Annual Report.
Our seventh edition focuses on the contrasting use by regulators of antitrust laws with respect to the FANGs, and how antitrust is being enforced in the U.S....more
7/24/2019
/ Acquisitions ,
Antitrust Investigations ,
Antitrust Litigation ,
Competition ,
Competition Authorities ,
Corporate Counsel ,
Criminal Liability ,
Department of Justice (DOJ) ,
Digital Marketplace ,
Digital Media ,
Enforcement Actions ,
EU ,
Extraterritoriality Rules ,
Federal Trade Commission (FTC) ,
FinTech ,
Hiring & Firing ,
Leniency Programs ,
Merger Controls ,
Mergers ,
No-Poaching ,
Recruitment Policies ,
State Aid ,
Trump Administration ,
UK Brexit
The “standstill obligation” under Article 7 of the Regulation 139/2004 on Merger Control (EUMR) prevents parties from implementing their transaction before receiving merger clearance from the European Commission (EC). Failure...more
The European Commission (EC) and other national competition authorities (NCAs) have traditionally shied away from investigating allegations of excessive pricing and appearing as price regulators. Commissioner Vestager warned...more
4/26/2018
/ Abuse of Dominance ,
Actavis Inc. ,
Antitrust Investigations ,
Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) ,
EU ,
Excessive Pricing ,
Hoffman LaRoche ,
Merck ,
Pay-For-Delay ,
Pfizer ,
Pharmaceutical Industry ,
Prescription Drugs ,
Pricing ,
Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union (TFEU) ,
UK ,
UK Competition Appeal Tribunal (CAT)
In perhaps the most hotly anticipated judgment in the European competition law world this year, the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) handed down its landmark ruling on September 6, 2017 in Intel’s appeal against...more
4/26/2018
/ Abuse of Dominance ,
Anti-Competitive ,
Antitrust Litigation ,
Appeals ,
Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) ,
EU ,
European Commission ,
Intel ,
Rebates ,
Rebuttable Presumptions ,
Rules of Civil Procedure
Large online platforms such as Amazon, Facebook and Google have a strong presence in Europe. Although general competition law principles apply to them, cases concerning online platforms give rise to a lot of novel questions...more
4/24/2018
/ Abuse of Dominance ,
AirBnB ,
Amazon ,
Antitrust Provisions ,
Competition Authorities ,
EU ,
Facebook ,
Google ,
Online Platforms ,
Social Networks ,
Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union (TFEU)
On December 9, 2016, the PRC National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) handed down its decision against medical device company Medtronic for having concluded and implemented a vertical monopoly agreement by...more
The growth of e-commerce and the resulting increase in price transparency and price competition have a significant impact on companies’ distribution strategies and consumer behavior. While the emergence of e-commerce has the...more
4/20/2018
/ Amazon ,
Antitrust Investigations ,
Antitrust Provisions ,
Coty ,
E-Commerce ,
EU ,
Internet Retailers ,
Manufacturers ,
Product Pricing ,
Retailers ,
Sales & Distribution Agreements ,
Supply Chain ,
Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union (TFEU)
It has been a year since Article 50 was triggered on March 29, 2017, and if no extension is given, the U.K. will leave the European Union (EU) on March 29, 2019. This means that negotiations are now at the half-way point, but...more
4/18/2018
/ Article 50 Treaty of the EU ,
Cross-Border Transactions ,
EFTA ,
EU ,
European Economic Area (EEA) ,
Free Trade Agreements ,
Member State ,
Merger Agreements ,
Mergers ,
State Aid ,
UK ,
UK Brexit ,
UK Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) ,
WTO
Divining trends in antitrust enforcement in a given presidential administration can take some time. Many commentators didn’t notice material changes in antitrust enforcement in the Obama administration – at least in merger...more
Algorithms and the use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) have become commonplace in a vast number of markets, and this has drawn the attention not only of competition law academics and practitioners, but also of competition...more
While structural remedies remain the primary remedy of choice, and virtually the only option in the case of horizontal mergers, under the Obama Administration and with respect to vertical mergers, the agencies increasingly...more
The EU and U.S. competition authorities have been and remain active in enforcing gun-jumping cases, while in recent years other competition authorities across the world, including in China, have also become increasingly...more
4/12/2018
/ Acquisitions ,
Antitrust Violations ,
China ,
Competition ,
Competition Authorities ,
Department of Justice (DOJ) ,
EU ,
European Commission ,
Gun-Jumping ,
Hart-Scott-Rodino Act ,
Japan ,
Japan Fair Trade Commission (JFTC) ,
Mergers ,
MOFCOM
In China, where foreign investments used to be subject to a case-by-case evaluation, the screening process for acquisitions of local businesses by foreign investors is being simplified and becoming more industry-focused. This...more
4/12/2018
/ CFIUS ,
China ,
Cross-Border Transactions ,
EU ,
European Commission ,
Foreign Acquisitions ,
Foreign Investment ,
Germany ,
Italy ,
Merger Controls ,
Mergers ,
MOFCOM ,
National Security Review Proceedings ,
UK
Is this perception well-founded? And does it represent a new policy trend towards ‘social justice’ objectives or simply a continuation of a policy driver that has underpinned EU competition enforcement for some time?...more
4/11/2018
/ Agricultural Sector ,
Anti-Competitive ,
Antitrust Provisions ,
Cartels ,
Competition ,
EU ,
European Commission ,
International Tax Issues ,
Member State ,
Mergers ,
Multinationals ,
R&D ,
State Aid ,
Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union (TFEU) ,
Unfair or Deceptive Trade Practices
On 6 December 2017, the European Court of Justice (“the Court”) handed down its preliminary ruling in the Coty case confirming that a manufacturer operating a selective distribution system of luxury goods is allowed to...more
12/8/2017
/ Appeals ,
EU ,
European Court of Justice (ECJ) ,
Fashion Branding ,
Federal Cartel Office (the FCO) ,
Germany ,
Internet Retailers ,
Private Resales ,
Sales & Distribution Agreements ,
Selective Distribution Agreements ,
Third-Party ,
Trade Restrictions ,
Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union (TFEU)
In response to a significant increase in acquisitions of companies in the EU by Chinese buyers in recent years, the foreign (i.e., non-EU) investment review legal framework in the EU is currently undergoing a change towards...more
Germany this summer introduced a new transaction value-based set of reporting thresholds. Austria introduced a similar provision which will enter into force on November 1. On the European level, the Commission is...more
Hardly picked up by the specialised press, the Proposal for a Regulation setting out the conditions and procedure by which the European Commission may request undertakings and associations of undertakings to provide...more
When a transaction meets the thresholds of the EU Merger Regulation, companies must notify and obtain clearance from the European Commission before implementing the transaction.[1] This means that until clearance is obtained,...more
Shearman & Sterling’s 2017 Antitrust Annual Report reflects our lawyers’ experience and insights on key antitrust risks affecting our clients’ businesses.
...more
3/22/2017
/ American Express ,
Antitrust Investigations ,
Antitrust Violations ,
Big Data ,
Cartels ,
E-Commerce ,
EU ,
Extraterritoriality Rules ,
FTAIA ,
Merger Controls ,
State Aid ,
UK Brexit
On April 27, 2016 the European Council and Parliament adopted a new data protection law: the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). The following briefing is a summary of key issues and a checklist of initial tasks to...more