The South African competition authorities this month took an important step towards enforcing novel price discrimination and buyer power provisions contained in the Competition Amendment Act No.18 of 2018 (Amendment Act), with the publication of draft Regulations (here) and Guidelines (here and here) by the Minister of Trade and Industry (Minister) and the Competition Commission … Read more
On 16 October 2019, the EU Commission (“the Commission“) adopted interim measures against Broadcom in connection with its ongoing investigation into the company for abuse of a dominant position. The investigation started in June 2019 when the Commission opened an antitrust investigation to assess whether Broadcom restricted competition in various chipsets and components markets by … Read more
On 14 October 2019 the Government’s legislative agenda for the next parliamentary session was set out in the Queen’s Speech, accompanied by detailed background briefing notes. We have summarised below the key takeaways in terms of implications for the UK competition law regime and the plans for a new standalone foreign direct investment regime. Competition … Read more
The CMA today published a penalty notice addressed to Sabre Corporation in the context of its anticipated acquisition of Farelogix Inc, for its failure to comply with two Section 109 Enterprise Act Notices. The anticipated acquisition is currently being examined by the CMA after its Merger Intelligence Committee identified the transaction as requiring further investigation … Read more
On 9 October 2019 the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport (SoS) announced that she is intending to accept undertakings offered by the parties to the proposed acquisition of British satellite operator Inmarsat plc by Connect BidCo (a private-equity led Consortium including equity funds based in Canada). This deal has been closely … Read more
We were delighted to host the annual GCR Live Competition Litigation Conference at our London office yesterday, which explored key current themes in competition litigation in an interactive discussion panel format. Christopher Bellamy QC opened the conference with an insightful keynote address. This was followed by a series of discussions involving a distinguished line up … Read more
On 9 September 2019, the German “Commission Competition Law 4.0” (Commission) submitted its report “A New Competition Framework for the Digital Economy” (English summary available here) to the Minister of Economic Affairs and Energy. The Commission was set up by the minister in September 2018 and mandated with developing recommendations for the further development of European … Read more
On 2 September 2019, the ACCC released the final report of the ACCC’s inquiry into the supply of foreign currency conversion services (FX services) in Australia (the Report). The ACCC concluded that Australian consumers are paying too much for FX services because of confusing, inconsistent pricing and a lack of robust competition. Read more
