Our Brussels team has contributed a definition and commentary on Cartel Enforcement, which forms part of the first Global Dictionary of Competition Law launched by Concurrences. This is the first dictionary dedicated to competition and antitrust law worldwide, brought together under the direction of editors Deborah Healey (University of New South Wales), William Kovacic (UK … Read more

Welcome to our brand new “CRTea” podcast series, which will bring you the latest developments in Competition, Regulatory and Trade (“CRT”) law from across EMEA and beyond. In this rapidly-evolving regulatory landscape, these regular podcasts will provide practical insights from our network of specialists (and maybe some special guests along the way) in a digestible, … Read more

The Hong Kong Competition Commission celebrated the sixth full year of the Competition Ordinance in December 2021, after an increase of enforcement activities and policy making efforts during 2021. 2022 has started with a flurry of activity. On 18 January 2022, the Commission conducted a joint dawn raid in the building maintenance sector with the … 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 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

On 22 June 2021 the European Commission (“Commission”) revealed that it had carried out surprise inspections at the German premises of a company active in the clothing sector, suspected of infringing competition rules.  This was the first unannounced inspection, or “dawn raid”, conducted by the Commission since the COVID-19 pandemic first struck Europe in March … Read more

As we celebrate International Women’s Week in various different ways, we have also been reflecting on gender and competition policy. This is an area which has been coming under increasing focus, and which our Brussels competition team is monitoring closely. Two key themes are the opportunity for competition authorities and practitioners to adopt a gender … Read more

On 22 January 2021, the European Commission published a non-confidential version of its decision to fine ethylene purchasers Orbia, Clariant and Celanese a total of EUR 260 million for participating in a cartel aimed at purchasing ethylene at the lowest possible price, to the detriment of ethylene sellers. Westlake, a fourth participant, applied for and … Read more