On 3 November 2021 Herbert Smith Freehills LLP hosted a webinar, with speakers from the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS), on the UK’s new National Security and Investment regime.  The new regime will overhaul the ability of the UK Government to review transactions on national security grounds, and potentially require remedies to … Read more

On 19 October 2021, in Justin Gutmann v First MTR South Western Trains Limited and another,1 the Competition Appeal Tribunal (“CAT“) approved two applications for a collective proceedings order (“CPO“) under the UK’s competition class action regime introduced in 2015. Gutmann, which concerns allegations that a large class of rail passengers who held Transport for … Read more

The Illumina/GRAIL case saga continues.  As we reported in our previous briefing, the Illumina / GRAIL deal provides the first illustrative example of the European Commission’s (‘Commission‘) new approach to try and “catch” transactions using the referral mechanism in Article 22 EU Merger Regulation (‘EUMR‘) that would otherwise fall below the EUMR turnover thresholds. Under … Read more

DEVELOPMENTS IN SOUTH AFRICA Burger King South Africa sale back on the table after revised conditions agreed upon New draft guidelines on small merger notification The Tribunal clears Coca-Cola of merger condition breach South African government encourages permitted collaboration to minimise impact of social unrest and strengthen the South African economy Constitutional Court rules on … Read more

The German Federal Cartel Office (FCO) has published new guidelines on its leniency programme and on the setting of fines in cartel proceedings. Unfortunately, both guidelines are so far available only in German. The previous guidelines date from 2006 and 2013 respectively. The FCO has now revised the guidelines in order to adapt them to … Read more

In its judgment of 6 October 2021, following a reference by the Provincial Court of Barcelona, the Court of Justice of the EU (CJEU) held that a victim of anti-competitive conduct is entitled to seek damages from the subsidiary (not referred to in the infringement decision) of an infringing parent company, provided both companies form … Read more

In advance of the next edition of Cartel Intel, our quarterly update on key EMEA cartel developments, Daniel Vowden (Partner, Brussels) had the great privilege of discussing important recent EU legal developments with Bo Vesterdorf, formerly a judge at and the President of the EU General Court (and more recently a senior consultant with Herbert … Read more

Last week the Higher Regional Court of Düsseldorf overturned a decision adopted by the German Federal Cartel Office (FCO) clearing a JV between Telekom Deutschland and EWE, a regional utility company. The JV partners were looking to cooperate in the development of fibre-optic networks in parts of Lower Saxony, North Rhine-Westphalia and Bremen. This is … Read more