IN THE NEWS
General Court delivers judgments on Spanish bitumen cartel appeals
The General Court has delivered five judgments on appeals against the European Commission's decision finding a cartel in the Spanish bitumen market. Although the General Court held that the Commission had correctly established the infringements, it annulled the Commission's decision in respect of Galp on the basis that the Commission had failed to prove that Galp had been active in the cartel monitoring system. The Commission had also failed to establish that Nynas was active in a monitoring system for market-sharing and customer allocation arrangements. The General Court dismissed the appeals by PROAS, CEPSA and Repsol in their entirety. Click here.
ECJ dismisses Commission appeal against interim measures granted by General Court
The ECJ has dismissed an appeal by the European Commission against a General Court Order that partially upheld an application for interim relief by Pilkington Group Ltd in its appeal against the Commission's refusal to allow confidential treatment of certain information relating to its participation in the car glass cartel. The ECJ concluded that the damage arising from the publication of the alleged confidential information would be serious and irreparable. Click here.
EU
Articles 101 and 102
- The General Court has delivered its judgments in appeals by thirteen groups of companies against the European Commission's decision on the bathroom fixtures and fittings cartel, dismissing appeals by seven of the companies and reducing the fines imposed on three of the companies. Click here.
UK
Competition Appeal Tribunal
- The CAT has published a notice of an application by BMI Healthcare Limited seeking a review of the CC's decision to refuse it permission to use certain confidential information (which was seen by BMI in a disclosure room) to respond to the CC's provisional findings in the private healthcare market investigation. Click here.
OFT
- The OFT has published its response to the Department for Business, Innovation & Skills' consultation on options for streamlining the system of regulatory and competition appeals. Click here.
Ofcom
- Ofcom has published for consultation its provisional determination of a dispute between Gamma Telecom Holdings Limited and British Telecommunications plc relating to the Oftel Interest Rate contained in BT's Standard Interconnect Agreement. Click here.
- Ofcom has published a consultation on a proposed new framework for setting cost based fees for spectrum licences issued under the Wireless Telegraphy Act 2006. Click here.
Other
- The Enterprise and Regulatory Reform Act 2013 (Commencement No. 3, Transitional Provisions and Savings) Order 2013 (SI 2013/2227) has been published, which will bring into force sections 25(1), (2) and (4) and most of Schedule 4 of the Enterprise and Regulatory Reform Act 2013 (ERRA), which provide for the establishment of the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA). Click here.
- The Department for Business, Innovation & Skills has published its second consultation on draft secondary legislation to implement aspects of the Enterprise and Regulatory Reform Act 2013 reforms. Click here.
- The Competition and Markets Authority transition team has published its second set of draft guidance documents for consultation. The draft guidance documents cover the CMA's powers and approach in the following areas: the CMA's approach to consumer protection; the CMA's Competition Act investigation procedures and Competition Act rules of procedure; prosecution guidance for the criminal cartel offence; the concurrent application of competition law to regulated industries; the variation and termination of merger, monopoly and markets undertakings and orders; and the CMA's proposed approach to the treatment of existing Office of Fair Trading (OFT) and Competition Commission (CC) Guidance. Click here.
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