Technology - Antitrust Developments, Restrictions on Hazardous substances and REACH in Europe

Europe - Antitrust developments in the technology sector

The new European Commissioner for Competition, Joaquin Almunia, has had a busy first few months in office and the technology sector has seen a number of interesting developments.

Cisco had its acquisition of Tandberg - the Norwegian producer of video conferencing products - approved by the European Commission but only after offering a rather novel remedy. The Commission was concerned by the overlap between Cisco and Tandberg in high-end video conferencing equipment and, in particular, by the ownership of certain IP rights which were essential to allow video conferencing equipment from rival manufacturers to communicate with each other. The Commission thought that, post-merger, Cisco would have the ability and incentive to use its IP rights to eliminate competition in the high-end market. To alleviate this concern, Cisco committed to divest the essential IP rights to a consortium of 70 telecommunications