News
French Supreme Court adopts a restrictive interpretation of attorney-client privilege
Whereas the trend was to ensure legal privilege with the enactment of Law n°2021-1779 on Confidence in the judiciary, the French Supreme Court has adopted a strict interpretation of attorney-client privilege in the context of antitrust investigations leading to a...
First experiences with the Danish Act on Unfair Food Practices
The Danish Act on Unfair Food Practices ("The UTP Act") came into force on 1 July 2021, implementing the EU UTP Directive (2019/633). The aim is to regulate unfair trading practices in relations between businesses in the agricultural and food supply sector. Under the...
Foreign investment controls: The “foreign investor” test and “protected entity” test in the EU and the UK
Foreign direct investment contributes to the growth of the economies where foreign money is invested, but can also undesirably interfere with resources of strategic importance to the functioning of the host country. In difficult times, security issues come to the fore...
Prohibition of unfair trade practices in the purchase of agricultural and food products: unilateral modification of contract terms
Last year 2023, the Swedish Competition Authority (”the SCA”) conducted a major investigation into unfair trading practices, which resulted in several cases. Here is a summary of the most interesting case handled by the SCA so far. Overview on unfair trading practices...
Dutch Authority for Consumers and Markets: lack of a price-fixing system is an unfair trading practice
In a decision of 4 September 2024 (Dutch only) the Dutch Authority for Consumers and Markets (ACM) imposed a cease and desist order on cheese producer Royal Lactalis Leerdammer B.V. for violating the Unfair trading practices in the agricultural and food supply chain...
Belgian Competition Law: the Act of 19 March 2024 gives new powers to the Belgian Competition Authority to support the European Commission’s competences under the Digital Markets Act (Carmen Verdonck and Nina Methens)
On 28 March 2024, the Belgian Federal Chamber of Representatives adopted a new act implementing Regulation (EU) 2022/1925 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 14 September 2022 on contestable and fair markets in the digital sector and amending Directives...
Germany becomes more attractive for antitrust litigation thanks to an increasing acceptance of the assignment model
German case law has so far been skeptical of the pursuit of large portfolios of antitrust damages claims under the so-called assignment model. This development now seems to have been stopped and Germany is once again becoming a more attractive forum for antitrust...
Lithuanian Competition Council Fines Capital Realty and Franchise Agencies for Anti-Competitive Practices
On 14 May 2024 the Competition Council of the Republic of Lithuania fined Capital Realty (acting as a franchisor) and 20 of its franchised real estate agencies with a total fine of EUR 710,751 for price fixing agreement. Capital Realty and other members of “Capital”...
New guidelines for the Belgian rules on foreign direct investment (Beatrijs Gielen and Carmen Verdonck)
Since 1 July 2023, the Belgian rules on the screening of foreign direct investments (“FDI”) have been in force. As the decisions of the Interfederal Screening Commission (“ISC”) are not published, the rules’ application and interpretation still raise a lot of legal...