On 27 September 2016, the Commission has sent the Statement of Objections to the International Skating Union (ISU) in the context of the ISU Eligibility rules relating to the participation of athletes in the international speed skating events. The preliminary findings indicate that the rules, which set out that penalties should be imposed on the…
On February 29, the General Court issued six judgments ruling on the cartel fines imposed by the Commission on several companies in the sector of international air freight forwarding services. In 2012, the Commission imposed fines amounting to a total of € 169 million on 14 international groups of companies active in the sector of…
On 3 December, the Commission announced that it launched a formal investigation into Luxembourg’s tax treatment of McDonald’s. The investigation aims to verify the concerns that two tax rulings issued by Luxembourg in 2009 provided McDonald’s with an advantageous tax treatment in violation of EU state aid rules. According to the preliminary observations of the…
On 9 July 2015, following formal proceedings launched in April 2013, the European Commission issued a Statement of Objections against MasterCard in which it formulated competition concerns in relation to the costs of card payments in the EU. Under discussion are interchange fees paid by the retailer’s bank (the ‘acquiring bank’) to the bank of…
The General Court stated, with decision of 21 January 2015 in the case Easyjet (T-355/13), that the Commission may reject a complaint on the basis that a national competition authority has already dealt with it. In 2008, EasyJet lodged complaints with the Netherlands competition authority against Schiphol (Luchthaven Schiphol NV) airport’s pricing policies. After the…