On 10 September 2019, Margrethe Vestager was proposed as the European Commissioner for Competition, a post which she has held since November 2014.  The appointment is still subject to the confirmation of the European Parliament. Vestager has also been given the role of Executive Vice President, with the mandate of making “Europe Fit for the Digital Age”. In her Mission Letter to Vestager, incoming European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said she wanted Vestager…

Fines are integral to EU cartel enforcement and subject to careful methodology and review. The European Commission (“EC”) determines cartel fines in accordance with the Guidelines on the method of setting fines imposed pursuant to Article 23(2)(a) of Regulation No 1/2003 (the “Fining Guidelines”). The Fining Guidelines set the value of sales of goods or services to which the infringement relates as the proxy that forms the basis of the fine calculation. The value of…

The European Commission (“EC”) has recently published Guidelines for national courts on how to estimate the share of the overcharge caused by cartels which was passed on by direct purchasers to their customers (“Passing-on Guidelines”). The Passing-on Guidelines provide an extensive practical overview of the applicable legal context, the relevant economic theory and quantification methods for the concrete harm caused to claimants in litigation.…

On July 11, 2019, Assistant Attorney General Makan Delrahim announced fundamental and sweeping changes to the Division’s approach to corporate compliance policies that will bring it into line with other Department of Justice branches.  In every case, the Division will now consider compliance programs in deciding whether to file criminal charges and in calculating fines. Also, when a company faces charges, Division prosecutors may now consider proceeding by way of deferred prosecution agreements (DPAs) rather…

On 14 May, Johan Ysewyn and Dirk Van Erps (DG COMP) gave a presentation on recent EU cartel enforcement at the annual Advanced EU Competition Law Conference in London. Their presentation covered developments in enforcement, policy, and court review between May 2018 and May 2019. There was not much cartel enforcement by the European Commission (“EC”) during the time period covered by the review. The EC issued only one settlement decision in Occupant Safety Systems …

On May 13, 2019, the Supreme Court (“the Court”) announced its 5-4 decision in Apple, Inc. v. Pepper, permitting iPhone users to proceed with an antitrust suit against Apple alleging that it monopolized the retail market for iPhone apps. The Court emphasized that it decided only the threshold issue, ruling that the iPhone users were not barred by federal law from bringing the suit, and did not address the merits of the claims. The Court…

On 16 April 2019, England’s Court of Appeal ruled that the Competition Appeals Tribunal (the “CAT”) had erred in rejecting certification of former financial ombudsman Walter Merricks’ class action against MasterCard, for £14 billion.  As a result, the CAT will now reconsider whether to certify the class. The decision has lowered the bar that will need to be cleared in this and future class actions in order to achieve certification. Louise Freeman and Harry Denlegh-Maxwell consider…