competitionlaw

  In Debrecen International Airport the European Commission approved operating aid granted by Hungary to an airport hit by the Covid-19 crisis. The aid measure notified to the Commission was aimed at covering the losses that the beneficiary, a small regional airport, would suffer over the 5-year period between 2019 and 2024. The losses forecast was based on a business plan drafted by the Hungarian authorities before the outbreak of the pandemic. The Commission approved the on the ground that this national measure met all the conditions set out in the 2014 Aviation Guidelines for operating aid to be declared compatible with the internal market. Of particular interest is the discussion made by the Commission about the proportionality condition in Point 125 of the Aviation Guideline. Here, the Commission   followed a flexible approach in assessing the lawfulness of operating granted to an airport whose activities were seriously impacted by the pandemic, considering in partic...

In what seems to be one of the most important Luxembourg competition case over the past years the Luxembourg Competition Authority (LCA) has found the German food company Bahlsen and three grocery stores, Auchan, Cactus and Delhaize to have implemented anticompetitive price vertical restraints ( decision of 20 November 2020, nos. 2020-FO-03, 2020-FO-04 and 2020-FO-05 CA ) . The LCA opened by its own initiative an antitrust investigation against the parties in 2015 when it surprisingly found out that the cakes and biscuits produced by Bahlsen had the same resale prices in many shops in Luxembourg. Evidence collected in the following investigation showed that over the 2011-2015 period Bahlsen, together with Auchan, Cactus and Delhaize, have jointly fixed the reselling prices of a wide range of cakes and biscuits marketed by the German company. In practice, the grocery stores complied with the selling prices ‘recommended’ by the manufacturer in exchange of financial incentives in the ...