International Competition Issues

European Commission Seeks To Stamp Out Envelope Cartel With Fines Totaling 19.48 Million Euros

A View from Constantine Cannon’s London Office By Ana Rojo Prada and Richard Pike The European Commission has announced that it has imposed fines totaling 19.48 million euros on five European envelope producers for coordinating prices and allocating customers through an anticompetitive cartel. The Commission imposed fines on the five companies – Bong (of Sweden), GPV and Hamelin (both of France),...

European Commission Hits Telecoms With Fines Of 70 Million Euros For Abusing Slovak Broadband Market

A View from Constantine Cannon’s London Office By Yulia Tosheva and James Ashe-Taylor The European Commission has signalled that it is not dialing down its scrutiny of the telecommunications sector by imposing fines totalling 70 million euros on Slovak Telekom and its parent company, Deutsche Telekom. On October 15, 2014, the Commission imposed a fine of 38,838,000 euros on Slovak Telekom and Deutsche...

European Commission Settles Two Swiss Franc-Related Derivatives Investigations

A View from Constantine Cannon’s London Office By Ana Rojo Prada and James Ashe-Taylor The European Commission has settled two cartel investigations and sanctioned four major banks in the Swiss Franc-related derivatives market, imposing total fines of approximately 94 million euros, for violations of European Union antitrust rules. Interest rate derivatives (including swaps, futures and options) are...

Brussels Antitrust Seminar Demonstrates Shifting European Landscape For Competition Enforcement In Wake Of ECJ MasterCard Judgment

A View from Constantine Cannon’s London Office By Irene Fraile and Richard Pike The recent judgment by the European Court of Justice (“ECJ”) in the MasterCard case is sparking a lively debate about how antitrust enforcement of payment system regimes should evolve in the European Union, as evidenced by an antitrust seminar co-sponsored by Constantine Cannon in Brussels on Monday. The ECJ’s MasterCard...

Google’s Settlement Offer Sparks European Debate

A View from Constantine Cannon’s London Office By James Ashe-Taylor and Ana Rojo Prada

Debate continues over Google’s settlement offer in search and advertising investigation as European Commission indicates that more is needed.

Google and Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp have traded blows publicly following comments by the European Commission indicating that it would reopen its antitrust investigation into...

European Commission Slaps Smart Card Chips Cartel With Fines

A View from Constantine Cannon’s London Office By Irene Fraile The European Commission has imposed fines totaling 138 million euros on smart card chips producers Infineon, Philips and Samsung for breaching European Union antitrust laws that prohibit cartels. According to the Commission, from September 2003 to September 2005, the companies engaged in a cartel to restrain competition relating to the smart...

China Ramps Up Antitrust Enforcement With Second Round Of Raids Of Microsoft Today 

Why you should take notice if you do business in China By Aymeric Dumas-Eymard Almost six years to the day after China began enforcing its Antimonopoly Law (“AML”), China’s antitrust authorities are marking the anniversary with a bang as they followed up last week’s raids of U.S. software giant Microsoft with a second round of raids today. China’s antitrust regulator the State Administration for...

EU General Court Upholds Record 1.06 Billion Euro Antitrust Fine Against Intel

A View from Constantine Cannon’s London Office By Irene Fraile The General Court of the European Union has dismissed Intel’s appeal of the European Commission´s decision fining the computer chip manufacturer a record 1.06 billion euros for breaching EU competition law. The European Commission imposed the fine on Intel in May 2009, after finding that Intel abused its dominant position in the x86 CPU...

Container Shipping Companies Seek To Steer Clear Of European Antitrust Shoals

A View from Constantine Cannon’s London Office By Natalia Mikolajczyk and Richard Pike Major container shipping companies are attempting to resolve the European Commission’s antitrust probe into their practice of publicly announcing price increases. The two biggest players in the container shipping market, A.P. Moeller-Maersk A/S and Mediterranean Shipping Company, hope to end the proceedings without...

European Commissioner Rebuffs German CEO’s Criticisms Of Google Search Engine Settlement

A View from Constantine Cannon’s London Office By Michael Petrides The European Commission’s Competition Commissioner, Joaquin Almunia, is strongly defending the EC from charges that its proposed settlement with Google concerning search engine practices would permit Google to expand its dominant market position. Commissioner Alumina’s defense of the proposed settlement joins a debate with Matthias...