competitionlaw

The Italian Competition Authority (ICA) has opened a phase II investigation into the acquisition of La Gardenia and Limoni by CVC (Case C12109, Profumerie Douglas/La Gardenia Beauty-Limoni ). CVC Capital Partners SICAV-FIS SA (CVC) is a private equity firm that provides advice and investment management services on behalf of collective investment funds. CVC owns Profumerie Douglas (Douglas) that is a retailer of cosmetics and perfumes and related products and services. La Gardenia Beauty Spa (La Gardenia) and Limoni Spa (Limoni) are owned by Orlando Italy Special Situation SICAR Sca (Orlando) and both of them are active in the retail distribution of perfumes and cosmetics. Through sale and purchase agreements concluded by Douglas and Orlando, CVC will acquire indirect and sole control of La Gardenia and Limoni. Because the proposed transaction met the jurisdictional thresholds in the EU Merger Regulation no. 139/2004 (EUMR), it had an EU dimension and was duly notified to the Commis...

By the decision handed down in the Laappeenranta Airport case [1] , the European Commission has ruled that the operating aid granted by the Finnish authorities to the airport manager fulfilled the compatibility conditions for operating aid set out by the 2014 Aviation Guidelines [2] . Therefore, the Commission approved the financial support to the Laappeenranta Airport . The objected national measure The Laappeenranta Airport is a small publicly owned airport in South-Eastern Finland near the Russian border. After the cease of the previous scheduled flights, the airport is currently served only by charter flights with a volume of annual passengers of roughly 35,000. In 2016 the Finnish authorities submitted a business plan for the development of the airport over the 2016-2024 period. To this end, Finland granted operating aid to the Laappeenranta Airport. The awarded public fund was limited to 80% of the initial operating funding gap for the 2016-2019 period. The Finnish autho...

In the Saarbrücken Airport case [1] , the Commission has approved a package of investment aid and operating aid the Germany authorities granted to the manager of the Saarbrücken Airport (FHS). The Commission found that the public aid to FHS fulfilled the compatibility conditions set out by the 2014 Aviation Guidelines [2] for investment aid and operating aid. Hence, the national measures under scrutiny were found to be compatible with the internal market . The facts of the case The entire equity capital of FHS was owned by Saarland through a wholly owned subsidiary. In November 2016, Germany notified the Commission a set of investment aid and operating aid in favour of FHS. The investment aid was aimed to fund a renovation and conversion works at the airport. The aim of operating aid was to cover the losses suffered from FHS in the operation of the airport. The decision of the ICA In the view of the Commission, the public aid granted by Saarland to FHS constituted Stat...

In the Case I816 Servizi di raccolta e gestione dei rifiuti sanitari in Campania the Italian Competition Authority (ICA) has opened a new Article 101 TFEU targeting a bid rigging practice allegedly implemented by six suppliers in the health sector. The ICA started the investigation following the receipt of a complaint lodged by Soresa. Soresa is the public body entrusted with the procurement of the requirements of the health system of the region of Campania. In July 2016 it launched for the first time a competitive tender procedure for the collection and the treatment of the wastes produced by the hospitals belonging to the regional health system of Campania. The tendered out contract was divided in six lots. Soresa noted anomalies in the offers submitted by six bidders. They drafted their bids in identical terms. Moreover, they did not make overlapping bids as each of them bid only for a lot. The ICA had concern that the six bidders may have entered into a collusion with the view...

The Intel judgment and the extraterritorial application of EU competition Much has been already written about the CJEU’s rulings in its recent Intel judgment (Case C-413/14 P Intel v Commission II ) regarding the legal test for vetting whether exclusivity and loyalty rebate schemes breach competition. This post looks at Intel from a different viewpoint focusing, instead, on the extraterritorial application of EU competition law. More specifically, it considers the rulings made by the CJEU on the question whether the Commission has asserted, in accordance with public international law, its prescriptive jurisdiction on the agreement concluded by Intel with a non-EU computer manufacturer, the Chinese firm Lenovo. The legal background Over the years, the EU courts and the European Commission have developed and applied a number of legal tests to determine whether EU competition rules could apply to non-EU firms, whose conducts may harm competition in the internal market, with...

Combating excessive pricing in the pharmaceutical sector has recently become a top priority in the enforcement agenda of national competition authorities. Over the past year anti-competitive excessive pricing practices have been detected by the UK Competition and Market Authority (CMA) and the Italian Autorità Garante della Concorrenza e del Mercato (ICA) in the Pfizer/Flynn and Aspen cases, respectively. The post compares the methodologies followed by the CMA and ICA to establish that the pricing policies implemented by the investigated firms were excessive and breached competition. Correctly understanding how the excessive price test is administered by competition authorities is then important for drug manufacturers to assess whether the pricing policies are prohibited by competition law with the risk of being levied hefty fines. This issue is also of relevance for national health authorities and patients. Feeling aggrieved by apparently exploitative pricing policies applied by m...

The opinion of the AG Wahl in Coty Germany: is the end of luxury brands on sale on on-line marketplaces? On 26 th July 2017, the AG Wahl has handed down his long-awaited opinion on the Coty Germany-Parfumerie Akzente case (C-230/16), which may have a serious impact on e-commerce, especially with regard to the sale of branded luxury products through online platform.  The facts of the case Coty Germany (CG) sells certain luxury cosmetic brands via a selective distribution network. Parfümerie Akzente (PA) is long-standing authorised retailer admitted to the selective distribution network of CG. PA sells the CG’s both at brick and mortar locations and over the internet. Internet sales are made partly through its own online store and partly via the platform ‘amazon.de’.   In March 2012, CG revised the contracts governing its selective distribution network contracts. The new contractual provisions entitle the authorised retailer to offer and sell the products on the i...