On September 3, 2024, the European Union’s Court of Justice (ECJ) issued its highly anticipated judgment in the Illumina/Grail case (C-611/22 P and C-625/22 P) concerning the European Commission’s (EC’s) power to review...more
Our EU Antitrust Team discusses the European Court of Justice’s decision that restricts the European Commission’s jurisdiction to review below threshold mergers....more
With its eagerly-awaited Illumina/Grail judgment on 3 September 2024, the Court of Justice of the European Union (“ECJ”) closed a transatlantic saga and rejected the European Commission's ("Commission") extended...more
In a spectacular turn, on September 3, 2024, the Court of Justice (CJEU), constituted as the grand chamber, overturned the ruling of the General Court (GC) and annulled the decision made by the Commission to accept requests...more
In a significant development for French merger control, on May 2, 2024 the French Competition Authority applied the jurisprudence laid down in the recent Towercast case to an alleged anti-competitive agreement matter in the...more
In a much-anticipated opinion, Advocate General Nicholas Emiliou (AG) has advised the European Court of Justice (ECJ) to set aside the General Court (GC)’s Illumina/GRAIL judgment. The AG is of the view that the European...more
In yet another twist in the Illumina/Grail saga, Advocate General Emiliou has challenged the European Commission's approach to calling-in certain non-reportable transactions for review. The final judgment will be delivered by...more
2024 is shaping up to be a year of significant change in Brussels. European Parliamentary elections in June will be followed by the appointment of a new Commission in the autumn....more
The EU Court of Justice in the CK Telecoms1 ruling has addressed key questions of EU merger control, including the standard of proof for the European Commission to challenge a merger, the assessment of mergers below the...more
The European Commission (EC) has imposed a fine of around EUR432 million on genomics company Illumina for closing its acquisition of blood-based cancer test developer GRAIL before the conclusion of the EC’s merger control...more
Advocate General Anthony Michael Collins has proposed that the European Court of Justice uphold the General Court's Altice judgment. In his Opinion, he considered that the entering into certain types of pre-closing covenants...more
The European Commission has published a Frequently Asked Questions and Answers ("Q&A") document which aims to provide practical information with respect to the application of its recently revised Article 22 referral policy....more
The European Commission’s (EC) decision to block Illumina’s acquisition of Grail marks the dawn of a new era for acquisitions of startups with innovation potential. This case involved many “firsts”: It is the first time that...more
Advocate General Juliane Kokott has proposed that the EU Court of Justice should find that competition authorities have the power to apply Article 102 TFEU to corporate transactions that are not reportable, and test under...more
In a recent high-profile judgment, the EU’s General Court confirmed that the European Commission (“EC”) can, upon referral by a national competition authority in the European Economic Area (“EEA”), review deals that do not...more
In a judgment dated 13 July 2022 (T-227/21), the General Court of the European Union (the “General Court” or the “Court”) upheld the decision of the European Commission (the “Commission”) whereby the latter accepted to assert...more
In Illumina v Commission, the General Court has confirmed the authority of the European Commission (EC) under Article 22 EU Merger Regulation (EUMR) to examine a transaction that does not have a European dimension, but which...more
OVERVIEW - On 6 May 2022, the European Commission (Commission) published the draft revised Implementing Regulation (Draft Implementing Regulation) and the Notice on Simplified Procedure (Draft Notice) for the EU Merger...more
The EU General Court has issued the latest judgment in a suite of hard-line anti-gun-jumping cases – effectively confirming the European Commission’s 2018 decision imposing a record fine on Altice for breaching EU merger...more
On September 22, 2021, the European General Court issued its judgment upholding the decision by the European Commission (Commission) to fine Altice for gun-jumping in the acquisition of Portugal Telecom (PT) in 2015. The...more
Insurers Settle Irish Signalling Investigation by Agreeing to Compliance Programmes - On 20 August 2021, the Irish competition regulator Competition and Consumer Protection Commission (CCPC) announced that six insurers...more
The European Commission (EC) recently published new guidance on the application of the referral mechanism set out in Article 22, which permits the EC to review any transaction referred to it, even if the transaction does not...more
The new Article 22 EU Merger Regulation (EUMR) Guidance released by the European Commission (EC) enables the EC to review any acquisition, even those that do not qualify for notification under national (or EU) merger control...more
On 26 March 2021, the European Commission (“Commission”) has, without any public consultation, published its new guidance on accepting merger referrals from Member States under Article 22 of the European Merger Regulation...more
The end of the Brexit transition period at 11pm on 31 December 2020 gives rise to significant changes to the application of antitrust and merger control rules in the UK. ...more