On April 5th, 2019, the European Commission has informed BMW, Daimler and VW (Volkswagen, Audi, Porsche) of its preliminary view that, from 2006 to 2014, they have colluded to restrict competition on the development of technology to clean the emissions of petrol and diesel passenger cars. According to the Commission, this collusion occurred in the…
On April 5th, 2019, the EU Commission sent Valve and five PC video game publishers (Bandai Namco, Capcom, Focus Home, Koch Media and ZeniMax) statements of objections in which it alleged that the companies breached EU competition rules by preventing consumers from purchasing videogames cross-border from other EU Member States. Valve is the owner of…
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…
According to the preliminary view of the European Commission expressed on 20 April, Google has violated EU competition law by imposing restrictions on Android device manufacturers and mobile network operators. The Statement of Objections addressed to Google and to its parent company, Alphabet, specified that Google’s strategy concerning mobile devices has aimed to strengthen and…
The European Commission has issued two connected statements of objections to Qualcomm for exclusive dealings and predatory pricing, both potentially bringing about anti-competitive effects. The investigation against Qualcomm was opened in July 2015, when the Commission disclosed concerns about a possible abuse of dominant position by Qualcomm in the baseband chipset market. Eventually, at the…
On 23 July, the European Commission has filed a formal Statement of Objections against Sky UK and six major US film studios (Disney, NBCUniversal, Paramount Pictures, Sony, Twentieth Century Fox, Warner Bros), having preliminarily determined that their bilateral licensing agreements containing clauses that inhibit access to pay-TV services for consumers located outside the UK and…
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…