On 2 November 2010, the Paris Court of Appeal (the 'Court') issued three orders objecting to the seizure of the whole content of email boxes by the French Competition Authority (the 'Authority').

On 19 July 2010, the German Federal Cartel Office ("FCO") decided to close the proceedings against the German branch of the US agency AP and the German news service ddp for not notifying their merger to the FCO.

Alstom Power Systems GmbH ("Alstom"), a German subsidiary of the French company Alstom SA, and a manufacturer of boilers for brown coal power stations, together with two of its former managers, was fined approx. €91 million by the German Federal Cartel Office ("BKartA") on Thursday, 12 August, for bid-rigging, which included the assignment of customers as well as fixing quotas and prices with its competitors when participating in large public tenders.

According to industry sources, Nestlé will not agree to a settlement with the BKartA in the case brought against it for the exchange of competitively relevant information.

The BKartA has recently launched a sector enquiry into the food retail sector, focussing on the competitive conditions on the procurement markets for food and luxury foods for retailers.

The Netherlands Competition Authority ("NMa") has imposed fines amounting to €20 million in total on Dutch media company Koninklijke Wegener N.V. and five of its executives.

On 24 January 2011 the CNC Council agreed on the termination by commitments of the investigation proceedings against the FNMT, accepting the commitments offered by FNMT.

28 February 2008 saw the birth of the Spanish competition authority's ("CNC") leniency programme, inspired mainly by the programme available at EU level.

The Competition Commission of India ("CCI") has imposed a fine of 10 million rupees (c. € 160,000) on Kingfisher Airlines for failing to provide sufficient information further to an information request from the CCI's director general of investigations.

On 16 September 2010, the Office of Fair Trading (OFT) and the Competition Commission (CC) (together the "Authorities") published the final version of their new joint merger assessment guidelines (the "Guidelines") which will in principle, be applied in their decisions with immediate effect.

On 4 January, the OFT wrote to Ryanair advising that it believes it is 'in time' to review Ryanair's acquisition of a minority shareholding in Aer Lingus under the UK merger control rules.

On 14 December 2010, the OFT announced its plan to launch a market study into the private healthcare market (the 'Study'). The Study is being launched as a result of the OFT's initial research and information from market participants which suggests that the market may not be working well for private healthcare patients.

On 14 March 2011, the OFT announced that it was launching a market study into off-grid energy.

On 26 August 2010, Defra announced a review of Ofwat, led by David Gray, to ensure that it is fit for future challenges facing the water industry.

Postcomm, the Postal Services Commission, has concluded that, following an investigation into Royal Mail, the company failed to comply with certain licence conditions relating to the independent monitoring of its performance.

The UK Supreme Court ('UKSC') has rejected an application to hear an appeal which may have clarified the way in which competition infringement decisions can be relied upon in private 'follow-on' damages claims.

The consumer body Which? has submitted a super-complaint to the Office of Fair Trading ('OFT') asking it to investigate the surcharges that are payable when customers pay for goods or services by debit/credit card.

On 11 February 2011, the consumer organisation Which? announced its intention to lodge a super-complaint with the Office of Fair Trading (the OFT) relating to surcharge payments imposed by some companies when consumers pay by debit or credit card.

A discussion on the US FATCA regime, which represents the new rules by which the US tax authority is seeking to prevent US taxpayers from avoiding their US tax obligations by moving money abroad.

The former CEO of Morgan Crucible, Ian Norris, has been sentenced to serve 18 months in prison for his role in a conspiracy to obstruct a US federal grand jury investigation.