In a landmark decision, the European Court of Justice (ECJ) has limited the European Commission’s (EC) ability to review mergers that fall outside thresholds at the EC level and in the Member States seeking to refer the...more
9/6/2024
/ Competition Authorities ,
Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) ,
EU ,
European Commission ,
European Merger Control Regulation ,
Jurisdiction ,
Jurisdictional Thresholds ,
Member State ,
Merger Controls ,
Merger Reviews ,
Mergers ,
Threshold Requirements
This is the third issue of WilmerHale’s FRAND Quarterly: Navigating the Global SEP Landscape, a bulletin that highlights developments about the licensing, litigation, and regulation of patents that are or are claimed to be...more
8/1/2024
/ Antitrust Violations ,
China ,
Ericsson ,
EU ,
European Commission ,
Federal Cartel Offices ,
FRAND ,
Hewlett-Packard ,
Intellectual Property Protection ,
IP License ,
Lenovo ,
Nokia ,
Patent Litigation ,
Patent Pools ,
Patents ,
Popular ,
Proposed Regulation ,
Standard Essential Patents ,
Tesla ,
UK
On July 23, the European Commission, US Department of Justice, US Federal Trade Commission, and UK Competition and Markets Authority released a joint statement setting out shared principles on competition in markets that...more
7/26/2024
/ Algorithms ,
Artificial Intelligence ,
Competition ,
Data Collection ,
Department of Justice (DOJ) ,
EU ,
European Commission ,
Federal Trade Commission (FTC) ,
Innovative Technology ,
Joint Policy Statements ,
Machine Learning ,
Personal Data ,
Technology Sector ,
UK ,
UK Competition and Markets Authority (CMA)
Britons will vote in Parliamentary elections on July 4 for the first time since 2019. The governing Conservative Party is expected to lose its majority and cede power to the opposing Labour Party for the first time in 14...more
This marks the second issue of WilmerHale’s FRAND Quarterly: Navigating the Global SEP Landscape, a bulletin that will highlight developments about the licensing, litigation, and regulation of patents that are or are claimed...more
4/25/2024
/ China ,
EU ,
FRAND ,
India ,
Intellectual Property Protection ,
International Trade Commission (ITC) ,
IP License ,
Patent Infringement ,
Patent Litigation ,
Patents ,
Standard Essential Patents ,
UK
On February 8, 2024, the European Commission (Commission) adopted its revised Market Definition Notice (Notice), replacing a version that was nearly 30 years old. The Notice is not binding, but it provides guidance on how the...more
This marks the first issue of WilmerHale’s FRAND Quarterly: Navigating the Global SEP Landscape, a bulletin that will highlight developments about the licensing, litigation, and regulation of patents that are or are claimed...more
1/31/2024
/ Apple ,
China ,
Ericsson ,
EU ,
FRAND ,
India ,
Intellectual Property Protection ,
International Trade Commission (ITC) ,
IP License ,
Lenovo ,
Panasonic ,
Patent Infringement ,
Patent Litigation ,
Patents ,
Popular ,
Proposed Regulation ,
Samsung ,
South America ,
Standard Essential Patents ,
Trump Administration ,
UK ,
Unified Patent Court ,
USPTO ,
ZTE
2023 saw some very significant decisions, investigations, court judgments and legislative developments in European Union merger control.eu
...more
On October 12, 2023, the European Commission (EC) ordered Illumina to unwind its already completed acquisition of the cancer-test provider GRAIL Inc. This is the first time that the EC has ordered a reversal of an...more
On September 25, 2023, the European Commission (EC) blocked the proposed acquisition by Booking Holdings, Inc. of Flugo Group Holdings AB (eTraveli). This is the EC’s first prohibition of a transaction this year and its...more
The EU’s Foreign Subsidies Regulation (FSR) was adopted in late 2022. Its stated aim is to combat the effects of competitive distortions caused by foreign subsidies in the EU internal market and thereby level the playing...more
8/9/2023
/ Competition ,
EU ,
European Commission ,
European Merger Control Regulation ,
Foreign Subsidies ,
Member State ,
Merger Controls ,
Mergers ,
New Regulations ,
Public Procurement Policies ,
State Aid ,
State-Owned Enterprises ,
Threshold Requirements
On June 1, 2023, the European Commission (EC) adopted revised Horizontal Guidelines (HGs) and two updated block exemption regulations (BERs) on research and development (R&D) and “specialisation” agreements. These materials...more
7/31/2023
/ Competition ,
EU ,
European Commission ,
Guidance Update ,
Horizontal Merger Guidelines ,
Horizontal Mergers ,
Joint Venture ,
Purchase Agreement ,
Research and Development ,
Safe Harbors ,
Sustainability ,
V-BER (Vertical Block Exemption Regulation)
On 25 April 2023, the UK government published the Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Bill (“Bill”). Before the Bill becomes law, both Houses of Parliament will need to approve it and amendments are likely....more
5/5/2023
/ Antitrust Provisions ,
Competition ,
Consumer Protection Laws ,
Digital Marketplace ,
Digital Markets Strategy ,
EU ,
Merger Controls ,
Mergers ,
Pending Legislation ,
UK ,
UK Competition and Markets Authority (CMA)
On 20 April 2023, the European Commission (EC) adopted a package of measures to “simplify” its merger control procedures. The reform expands the scope of the EU’s simplified merger control procedure, introduces a new...more
On February 6, 2023, the European Commission (EC) published a draft Implementing Regulation (the Implementing Regulation) setting out rules and procedures for the application of the Foreign Subsidies Regulation (FSR)....more
On December 8, 2022, the European Court of Justice (ECJ), the European Union’s highest court, delivered a landmark ruling in Orde van Vlaamse Balies a.o. (the Judgment) clarifying that legal professional privilege (LPP) is...more
On November 28, 2022, the Council of the European Union (Council) gave its final approval to the proposed Regulation on Foreign Subsidies (Regulation), concluding seven months of negotiations with the EU Parliament. Under...more
Following its exit from the European Union, the United Kingdom (UK) is no longer bound by the EU’s rules governing public subsidies. At the end of April 2022, the UK Parliament passed the Subsidy Control Act 2022, which sets...more
The United Kingdom (UK) left the European Union (EU) on 31 January 2020. Since then, under the EU-UK Withdrawal Agreement, a transition period has been in force, in principle until 1 January 2021. During this period most EU...more
On April 8, 2020 the European Commission (the ‘EC’) published a temporary antitrust framework for assessing business cooperation to ensure the supply of “essential scarce products and services” during the COVID-19 outbreak...more
The European Competition Network of the 27 EU Member State Antitrust Authorities (the ‘ECN’), several individual EU Member State antitrust authorities, the UK’s antitrust authority and Norway’s government have issued...more
The UK is scheduled to leave the EU in less than two months. It is unclear whether this will happen under the terms of a deal negotiated with the EU (a “deal-based” Brexit) or without a deal (“no-deal” Brexit).
Under a...more
2/13/2019
/ Acquisitions ,
Antitrust Investigations ,
Cross-Border Transactions ,
EU ,
European Commission ,
Jurisdiction ,
Merger Controls ,
Mergers ,
No-Deal Brexit ,
UK ,
UK Brexit ,
UK Competition and Markets Authority (CMA)
Obtaining the European Commission’s (EC’s) approval for a merger or acquisition sometimes can be a time-consuming and costly procedure. This latest issue of WilmerHale’s 8-in-8 alert series on European Law and Policy examines...more
EU and US laws prohibit merging companies from implementing reportable transactions until their deal is cleared or the statutory waiting period has expired. Violations of this principle are colloquially known as “gun-jumping”...more
2/15/2018
/ Antitrust Violations ,
Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) ,
Department of Justice (DOJ) ,
EU ,
Federal Trade Commission (FTC) ,
Gun-Jumping ,
Merger Controls ,
Mergers ,
New Guidance ,
Sherman Act ,
Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union (TFEU)
2017 saw some highly significant investigations and court judgments in European Union merger control. Notably:
..After detailed investigations and subject to extensive divestments, the European Commission (“EC”) cleared...more
1/17/2018
/ Acquisitions ,
Antitrust Violations ,
Bayer ,
Corporate Counsel ,
Dow Chemical ,
DuPont ,
EU ,
European Commission ,
Facebook ,
Gun-Jumping ,
Merger Controls ,
Mergers ,
Monsanto