Focus Antitrust - 19 December 2018

In The News

European Commission fines Guess €40 million for restricting cross-border sales

The European Commission has fined the clothing company Guess €40 million for restricting retailers from online advertising and selling cross-border to consumers in other Member States in breach of the prohibition on anti-competitive agreements. The Commission’s investigation found that Guess' distribution agreements restricted authorised retailers from using the Guess brand names and trademarks for the purposes of online search advertising, selling online without a prior specific authorisation by Guess, selling to consumers located outside the authorised retailers' allocated territories, cross-selling among authorised wholesalers and retailers and independently deciding on the retail price at which they sell Guess products. Click here.

CMA issues statement of objections in pre-cast concrete drainage products cartel

The CMA has issued a statement of objections alleging that three suppliers of pre-cast concrete drainage products breached competition law by taking part in a cartel agreement. Click here.

Sainsbury’s and Asda appeal CMA’s merger investigation timetable

Sainsbury’s and Asda have lodged an appeal before the Competition Appeal Tribunal in relation to the CMA’s timetable for the investigation of their merger, including the deadline to respond to the CMA’s working papers. Click here.

EU

Articles 101 and 102

• The European Commission has fined the BEH group €77 million for blocking competitors' access to key gas infrastructure in Bulgaria, in breach of the prohibition on the abuse of a dominant position. Click here.
• The General Court has annulled in part the European Commission’s decision finding the existence of restrictive agreements and an abuse of a dominant position by Servier on the market for perindopril, a medicine used to treat hypertension and heart failure. The General Court confirmed, however, that certain patent settlement agreements may be restrictive of competition by object. Click here.
• The ECJ has annulled the General Court judgment, which awarded damages for excessively long proceedings in the industrial bags cartel. Click here.
• The General Court has dismissed the appeal by Groupe Canal + against the European Commission decision to accept commitments from Paramount Pictures in the pay TV investigation. Click here.
• The General Court has partially annulled the European Commission decision relating to anticompetitive practices on the Slovakian telecommunications market. The Court reduced the fine imposed jointly on Slovak Telekom and Deutsche Telekom and the fine imposed solely on Deutsche Telekom. Click here.

UK

CMA

• The CMA has published its final report on its investment consultancy market investigation. Click here.
• The CMA has provisionally cleared Menzies Aviation’s takeover of part of Airline Services’ business after an in-depth phase 2 investigation, which provisionally found that the merger would not raise competition concerns. Click here.

For more information please contact Paul Stone on +44 (0)20 7203 5110 or at paul.stone@crsblaw.com.