competitionlaw

In the case A476Aliplast v CONAI/COREPLA the Italian Competition Authority (ICA) has recently opened an Artice 102 TFEU investigation into the market for plastic recycling. CONAI is a consortium set up by Legislative Decree n. 152/06 which is responsible for the recycling of packages. CONAI also coordinates the activities of COREPLA the consortium which is charge for the recycling of plastic packages. Under Legislative Decree n. 152/06 all undertakings making use of plastic packages have to join the CONAI/COREPLA system and pay a fees (CAC) when giving the packages to the consortium. Membership to the CONAI/COREPLA system is, however, a default regime and users can also set an alternative recycling system, which has to be authorized by the Ministry of Environment (MoE). The procedure for the authorization before the MoE can be divided into two phases. In the first phase the MoE considers the suitability of the proposed system and in the second phase it examines how the system effect...

By a decision made on 22 October 2013 Italian Competition Authority (ICA) has opened an Artice 101 TFEU investigation into an alleged resale price maintenance agreement (RPM) in the case I766 Inverter Solar ed Eolici – Imposizione Prezzi Minimi (Inverter) .  The ICA believed that  Power-One Italy ( POI) imposed a RPM on the dealers that belonged to its distribution network. By the letter of 17 October 2012 having as object “ Minimum selling price”, the vice-president of POI reminded distributors, resellers and partners of the fact that since January 2012 a minimum reselling price system was introduced in all our price lists. The letter also requested dealers to comply with the RPM obligation, stressing that POI would terminate the contract with non compliant dealers. In addition, a clause in the model distribution agreement of January 2012 used by POI to govern its Italian distribution network obliged the authorized distributors to strictly comply with the prices reported...

The European Commission has recently reviewed a number of public aid measures granted to airport managers and airliners on the basis of the 2014 Commission's Aviation Guidelines. In particular, in the cases of Angoulême Airport (Case SA.33963) , Pau Pyrénées Airport (Case SA.22614) and Nîmes Airport (Case SA.33961) , the Commission examined the airport service agreements and marketing agreements concluded by the managers of the airports of Angoulême, Pau Pyrénées and Nîmes Airport with Ryanair. The Commission assessed the aid measures granted to Ryanair on the basis of the principle of market economy operator. It ruled that the above agreements gave Ryanair an undue advantage over its competitors and that the agreements were unlikely to improve the financial conditions of the airports concerned. Therefore, no market economy operators would have granted such measures to Ryanair in similar circumstances. Aid granted to the airline was considered by the Commission as mere operating...

Vending industry in Italy is going well with growing profits in 2013, too. Recently, this industry attracted the attention of the Italian Competition Authority (ICA). By the decision of 17 July 2014 the ICA has opened an investigation against 14 firms which were alleged to have cartelized the Italian vending markets ( Case I738 ). The ICA started the investigation in the Case I738 following a report filed by an operator that was interested in installing a new vending machine. On the basis of the facts submitted by the complainant, the ICA believed that the parties entered into a non-competition agreement having as object to crystallize their market shares. According to the ICA, the parties agreed to refrain from supplying operators that were already clients of the other parties. The Case I738 is also a useful reminder for firms to of the relevance to promote competition compliance among all their employees. Indeed, the ICA decision was based, among other things, on a chat the comp...

I published here a brief note on the Pinterest v Premier Interest case recently decided by the OHIM. By a decision made on 5 November 2013 the Opposition Division of Office for Harmonization in the Internal Market (OHIM) rejected the Pinterest opposition against the Premium Interest trade mark application. The decision is worth reading as it illustrates the difficulties for social media to invoke the trade mark protection for their brands, due to the gap between the territoriality of trade mark laws and the borderless dimension of the Internet economy. The note identifies the main problems in proving that the mark of a social network is effectively used as a trade mark in the course of trade. 

By a decision made on 12 June 2014 (Case I782 MilitaryArsenals ), the Italian Competition Authority (ICA) has opened an Article 101 TFEU investigation into an alleged cartel in the defense sector following a report lodged by the Minister of Defence (MOD). The ICA will examine the conducts of 14 defense contractors that have been alleged to have carried out bid rigging practices. The parties coordinated their behaviours with regard to three competitive tender procedures launched by the MOD for the award of a contract for the work of asbestos removal from military vessels. The MOD reported a strong parallelism in the conduct of the parties in the bidding for the tendered contracts. First, the parties set up three joint-ventures with the purpose to bid. The joint ventures consistently had the same leader and membership. Second, the parties followed the same behavioural pattern. In the first phase of the tender procedure only two joint-venture filed the request to make a bid. In the se...

The compatibility of restrictive national regimes on Sunday trading with the internal market law have long discussed in the past. The Court of Justice of the EU (CJ) has recently dealt with this issue again in Pelckmans Turnhout v Van Gastel (C-483/12). Van Gastel opened its garden centres to the public seven days a week. The plaintiff Pelckmans brought proceedings against Van Gastel before the Commercial Court of Antwerp, arguing that by opening its shops the whole weak the defendant breached the Belgian laws that prohibits traders from opening their establishments seven days a weak but for some exceptional cases. The defendant submitted that the provisions were contrary to Belgian Constitution and the Court referred the constitutionality question to the Constitutional Court. Then, the Constitutional Court stayed proceedings and referred to the CJ, among other things, the question whether the contested national provisions breached Articles 34 and 36 TFEU on the free movemen...