On June 30, 2017, the European Commission has found that a Polish progressive tax on the retail sector is in breach of EU state aid rules. More precisely, following a complaint, the Commission opened an investigation in September 2016 concerning a Polish measure that allows companies operating in Poland in the retail sector to pay…
On June 27, 2017, the European Commission has fined Google €2.42 billion for having abused its alleged market dominance as a search engine by giving an illegal advantage to its comparison shopping service. According to the Commission, Google is dominant in the search engine market by providing search results to consumers who pay for the…
On June 21, 2017, the European Commission has fined Automotive Lighting and Hella a total of €26.744.000 for participating in an automotive lighting cartel. The cartel concerned the supply of vehicle lighting systems, that include parts such as headlamps or daytime running lights, to manufacturers of passenger and commercial vehicles after the end of mass…
On June 20, the European Commission has adopted an amending decision concerning the Spanish raw tobacco cartel. In 2004, the Commission fined five companies active in the Spanish raw tobacco market a total of €20 million for fixing the prices paid to, and the quantities bought from, tobacco growers in Spain. World Wide Tobacco España…
The European Commission has readopted a cartel settlement decision against the envelopes manufacturer Printeos and it has re-imposed a fine of €4,729,000 for its participation in a price fixing cartel. In December 2014, in order to close the Commission’s investigation, Printeos and four other manufacturers entered into a settlement agreement. However, in December 2016…
On 14 June 2017, the European Commission has opened three separate antitrust investigations to investigate whether certain licensing and distribution practices of Nike, Sanrio and Universal Studios illegally restrict their licensees from selling the licensed merchandise cross-border and online. More specifically, the investigations concern the licensing and distribution of merchandising products, such as clothes, shoes,…
On 6 June 2017, the European Commission has opened a formal antitrust investigation into the distribution agreements and practices of clothing manufacturer and retailer Guess. Guess operates as a manufacturer, distributor and licensor of clothing and accessories. According to the opening statement, the investigation is aimed at ascertaining whether Guess illegally restricted retailers from selling…
On 1 June 2017, the European Commission has opened a formal investigation to assess whether Romania’s gas transmission system operator Transgaz has abused a dominant position by hindering gas exports from Romania to the other EU Member States and isolating the Romanian gas market to the detriment of consumers throughout the EU. Romania is the…
The 2014 General Block exemption Regulation (the “Regulation”) exempts certain categories of state aid from the requirement of prior notification to the Commission and they can be implemented by Member States without prior Commission approval, provided they meet certain requirements and they are unlikely to distort competition in the single market. The decision to widen…
Amet ipsum id sem quis mauris porttitor conse quat id vitae dolor. Phasellus ligula velit molestie rhoncus ullamcorper mauris ultricies mi at pharetra lorem.