On March 8, 2022, the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) published its decision to accept commitments offered by Gridserve (the owner of The Electric Company Limited) and three motorway service area (MSA) operators: Roadchef, MOTO and Extra. This article considers
Antitrust & Competition Blog
The Antitrust & Competition Blog, published by Steptoe LLP, covers developments and analysis in antitrust and competition law. It addresses topics such as regulatory changes, enforcement actions, and litigation trends involving antitrust statutes like the Robinson-Patman Act. The blog discusses issues related to patent settlements and their antitrust implications, digital market regulations including the UK Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Act and the EU Digital Markets Act, and the role of business users under these frameworks. It also examines competition authority investigations and policy shifts affecting various industries, including pharmaceuticals, technology, and retail sectors.
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Commission Moves Closer to Finalizing New Horizontal Guidelines and R&D and Specialization Block Exemptions
Since launching its review programme in September 2019, the Commission has been working to update its Horizontal Guidelines and two sets of block exemptions, R&D and Specialisation, both of which are due to expire on December 31, 2022. The Commission…
Revising the Horizontal and Vertical Merger Guidelines: A New Approach for Antitrust?
On January 18, 2022, Lina Khan, the Chair of the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), and Jonathan Kanter, the Assistant Attorney General in charge of the Antitrust Division of the Department of Justice (DOJ), held a joint press conference to announce…
DOJ Overcomes Motion to Dismiss No-Poach Antitrust Prosecution
A federal district court in Colorado last week handed the Department of Justice (DOJ) its second victory in its fight to criminally prosecute allegedly unlawful labor agreements, holding that alleged non-solicitation (or “no poach”) agreements among the defendants and their…
The UK’s Proposed New Subsidy Control Regime: Will it Work?
‘State aid’ is the term we would hear or read on a daily basis during the Brexit negotiations. The media described it as one of the ‘make or break’ issues which neither party, the UK or the EU, was willing…
Draft Policy Statement Updates Guidance for Negotiations and Remedies for Standards-Essential Patents
The US Department of Justice announced last month that it is requesting public comment on an updated draft policy statement on standards-essential patents (SEP). The December 6, 2021 draft statement was issued pursuant to the Executive Order on Promoting Competition…
Gun Jumping: The General Court’s Ruling
Gun-jumping can occur when parties fail to fulfil the two obligations laid down by the European Merger Regulation No 139/2004 (EUMR). Article 4(1) of the EUMR sets out the obligation to notify the European Commission (Commission) of a concentration with…
Ruling in No-Poach/Wage-Fixing Prosecution Opens New Antitrust Frontier
One year after the first criminal indictment for wage-fixing, a Texas federal district court has ruled that an agreement to fix wages is a per se violation of Section 1 of the Sherman Act.
While over the last century the Supreme Court…
The EU Courts Confirm a Subsidiary Can Be Held Liable for Damages Resulting from An Infringement of EU Competition Law Committed by its Parent Company
On October 6, 2021, an important judgment was handed down by the Court of Justice of the European Union (“CJEU”) on the liability of a subsidiary for the actions of its parent. The Court confirmed (in Case C-882/19) that the…
Webinar Recap – Vertical Agreements in the EU and UK: How to Navigate the New Competition Law Landscape
Last month, we held a webinar to discuss the modernisation of the EU’s distribution block exemption (the ‘VBER’) and of the UK’s own approach to this: the ‘VBEO’). Economic principles increasingly need to be woven into the commercial application of…