Focus Antitrust - 7 February 2018

In The News

European Commission fines Qualcomm €997 million for abuse of dominance

The European Commission has fined Qualcomm €997m for abuse of a dominant market position in LTE baseband chipsets. The Commission found that Qualcomm prevented rivals from competing in the market by making significant payments to a key customer (Apple) on condition it would not buy from rivals. Click here.

CMA issues provisional findings on Electro Rent/Microlease merger

The CMA has provisionally found that Electro Rent's purchase of Microlease is likely to have adverse effects on competition for renters of testing and measurement equipment. The CMA is now inviting comments on both its provisional findings and its possible remedies, which include selling part or all of one of the merged companies. Click here.

European Commission approves Discovery's acquisition of Scripps subject to conditions

The European Commission has approved the proposed acquisition of Scripps by Discovery. The clearance is conditional on Discovery making its Polish news channel TVN24 (and its sister channel TVN24 Bis) available to current and future TV distributors in Poland for a reasonable fee determined by reference to comparable agreements. This commitment will remain in place for a period of seven years. Click here.

EU

Articles 101 and 102

• The ECJ has dismissed the appeals against the fines imposed by the European Commission on a number of companies for their participation in cartels in the international air freight forwarding services sector. Click here.

Mergers

• The European Commission has accepted a request from Austria, France, Iceland, Italy, Norway, Spain and Sweden to assess under the EU Merger Regulation the proposed acquisition of Shazam by Apple. The Commission considers the transaction may threaten adversely to affect competition in the EEA. Click here.

This article was written by Paul Stone. For more information, contact Paul on +44 (0)20 7203 5110 or at paul.stone@crsblaw.com.