In European Commission v. Stichting Administratiekantoor Protielje and Cosselin Group NV, Advocate General Julianne Kokott, the chief legal adviser to the Europe’s highest appeals court, issued an opinion that a parent company can be held liable for the cartel activity of its subsidiaries regardless of whether the parent actually conducts business itself. This recommendation came […]
Category Archives: EU News
EU Adviser Says A Parent Company Can Be Held Liable For Its Subsidiary’s Cartel Activity
January 28, 2013 – 5:05 pm
EU General Court Upholds Ban on Payment Card System Fees Against New Issuing Members
January 21, 2013 – 6:26 pm
The EU General Court has ruled that a French bank card group imposed anticompetitive fees on new entrants. The decision upheld a 2007 European Commission decision banning the charges because they inhibited smaller banks from offering discounted card programs. The defendant contended that the fees were necessary to its payment system and that the EC […]
EU High Court Upholds Fine Against Drug Company Improperly Blocking Generic Competition
January 15, 2013 – 12:49 pm
In AstraZeneca v. Commission, the European Court of Justice upheld a €52.5 million ($68 million) abuse of dominance fine against AstraZeneca. The EC had fined the drug maker for manipulating the applicable regulatory systems in order to block generic versions of the defendant’s ulcer drug Losec. The Commission found that the company provided misleading information […]
EU Adviser Says A Parent Company Can Be Held Liable For Its Subsidiary’s Cartel Activity
December 26, 2012 – 3:14 pm
In European Commission v. Stichting Administratiekantoor Protielje and Cosselin Group NV, Advocate General Julianne Kokott, the chief legal adviser to theEurope’s highest appeals court, issued an opinion that a parent company can be held liable for the cartel activity of its subsidiaries regardless of whether the parent actually conducts business itself. This recommendation came in […]
Microsoft Loses Bid to Overturn EU Fine
July 2, 2012 – 4:38 pm
The European Commission fined Microsoft a $1.1 billion dollars for abusing its dominant position in the operating system market. Microsoft challenged the fine, but the EU General Court upheld it, requiring the software giant to license on reasonable terms interoperability data needed by firms writing programs that would be compatible with Windows. The decision bolsters […]
EU Court Upholds MasterCard Interchange Fee Ban
May 30, 2012 – 12:17 pm
European Union’s General Court affirmed a 2007 European Commission decision banning MasterCard Inc.’s multilateral interchange fees because the fees inflated the financial institutions’ actual costs and thwarted competition. The court rejected MasterCard’s claims that the fees were objectively necessary to run its payment system, pointing out that it was unlikely that many banks would stop […]
EU Court of Justice Affirms Antitrust Fine Against Recycler
May 1, 2012 – 4:51 pm
The EU Court of Justice affirmed a €24 million ($31.7 million) antitrust fine against recycling firm Tomra Systems ASA. The European Commission had found that the company used a system of exclusivity agreements with large retailers to restrain potential entrants into the market for automated machines that dispense cash in exchange for empty bottles. The […]
E-book Publishing Antitrust Case Filed
May 1, 2012 – 4:41 pm
The United States Department of Justice, Antitrust Division, and the European Commission have launched major antitrust initiatives against the e-book publishing industry and Apple. Both enforcers are attacking the publishers’ decisions to switch from a traditional resale model in which book sellers paid wholesale prices and set their own resale prices to an agency model […]
EU Investigates Motorola’s Smartphone Patent Conduct for Antitrust Violations
April 20, 2012 – 9:29 pm
The European Union’s antitrust regulator opened two formal investigations to determine whether Motorola Mobility Inc. violated its FRAND commitment to EU’s patent standard-setting organizations by disrupting competition in the EU market with its standard-essential patents for smartphones and other devices. The EC launched these investigations in response to Apple and Microsoft accusing Motorola of unfairly […]