Overview

The fourth issue of 2026 includes the following articles: "Cleared for Take-Off, Subject to Conditions" (looking at the Commission’s conditional approval of Boeing’s acquisition of Spirit AeroSystems following a Phase I investigation) ; and "M.11939 FrieslandCampina/Milcobel – A dairy tale" (which covers the Commission’s first assessment of a merger between dairy cooperatives in the context of a sustained milk shortage, following an in-depth investigation into the dairy sector in Belgium and the Netherlands.)

The European Commission has published its Report on competition policy for 2025. The report presents the main legislative initiatives and policy developments of 2025, as well as a selection of enforcement actions, to citizens, businesses and the competition policy community.

A paper co-authored by DG Competition has been featured among this year’s winners in the academic category “Concerted Practices” at the Concurrences Antitrust Writing Awards. The awarded article, “Public Communication and Collusion: New Screening Tools for Competition Authorities,” explores how innovative analytical tools can help detect collusive behavior in public corporate statements.

The European Commission's first review of the Digital Markets Act (DMA) found that in the first two years of its application, the DMA remains fit for purpose and has opened up new opportunities for businesses and developers, while giving users more control over their experiences and devices, as well as access to more diverse and innovative digital products and services.

The Commission services and the European Data Protection Board (EDPB) have agreed to work together to clarify and give guidance on the interplay between EU competition law and data protection law. This joint work between Commission’ services and the EDPB will focus on selected situations where data protection law is relevant for competition law assessment and conversely to ensure a coherent approach between the two areas of law.

DG Competition will hold on a “Reality Check” to identify good practices on the activities of National Promotional Banks and potential bottlenecks caused by State aid rules. The Reality Check meeting will take place on Tuesday, 28 April 2026. The representatives from Member States’ national promotional banks, international financial institutions implementing InvestEU and relevant EU associations are invited.

In the context of the review of the Merger Guidelines, as a follow-up to the public consultation, DG Competition is organizing two interactive technical stakeholder workshops on key aspects of the review of the Merger Guidelines. The aim of the workshops is to gather views on these important topics of the review and discuss how they could be incorporated in the draft Merger Guidelines. Workshop 1: Scale, Competitiveness and Efficiencies. Brussels, 4 December 2025, 9.00 – 17:00 CETWorkshop 2: Innovation, Investment, Sustainability, Labour and Democracy. Brussels, 20 January 2026, 9.00 – 17:00 CET

To mark its 20th Anniversary, the Chief Economist Team is organising a conference that will bring together leading experts to discuss and reflect about competition economics in a changing world. The event will be a half-day conference (exclusively in-person, with no streaming available) on Thursday 15 May 2025, with opening and closing remarks by Executive Vice-President Teresa Ribera and Director-General Olivier Guersent, a keynote lecture by Chief Competition Economist Prof. Emanuele Tarantino, as well as roundtables where contributors from academia, private sector and public sector will discuss about the contribution of economics to public policies, with an emphasis in competition and industrial policies.

On 4 March 2025, Executive Vice-President Teresa Ribera hosted her first Youth Policy Dialogue on Empowering Young Talent and Improving Gender Balance in the EU. The event was an excellent opportunity to exchange ideas with the younger generation and listen to their insightful contributions. Here you can see the highlights of event. For more information about the Dialogue, please click here, and for the recording of the whole event, please click here.

On 5 March 2026, DG Competition will host a conference to discuss key aspects of the ongoing review of the Merger Guidelines. This event will bring together leading experts and stakeholders to explore the latest developments and challenges in EU merger control.The conference will debate three broad themes:Driving productivity and innovation in the Single Market: the role of EU Merger control;How can mergers promote a more sustainable Europe?; andMergers and the cost of living: price effects, workers woes and other impacts to society.The conference will be held only in-person. DG Competition plans to inform the admitted participants via email by 13 February 2026.

On March 3rd, Executive Vice-President Teresa Ribera, responsible for a Clean, Just, and Competitive Transition hosted her second Youth Policy Dialogue. The ten young winners of DG Competition’s Student Challenge linked to the Blueprint Conference of last January met the EVP. They discussed together a blueprint for our future in Europe, exchanging bold and innovative ideas for competition policy and other, broader policies of the European Commission.

If you are interested in the topics of the Blueprint Conference and are a university student, you are invited to take on our Student Challenge and give yourself a chance to share your views with EVP Teresa Ribera. How? (i) Watch the Blueprint Conference on or after 29 January 2026; (ii) Choose a panel discussion; (iii) picture yourself among the speakers and (iv) tell us what you would have talked about. Send your abstracts — no more than 250 words — to comp-blueprint-conference@ec.europa.eu by 10 February 2026 at 6 pm CETPrize?We will invite the winners to Brussels to meet EVP Ribera for a Youth Policy Dialogue like this one. Read the complete Student Challenge rules and good luck to all.

The Commission is consulting third parties on the draft measures that Alphabet must implement to ensure effective interoperability with AI services on its Android operating system (Google Android), as required by Article 6(7) of the DMA. The Commission especially welcomes contributions from companies with first-hand experience on issues concerned by these proceedings, such as those providing Artificial Intelligence (AI) services on Android smartphones and tablets or Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEMs) whose mobile devices are powered by Google Android. See also the Commission's press release.

Consultation on the proposed measures that Alphabet must implement to ensure effective sharing of Google Search data with third party undertakings providing online search engines, as required by Article 6(11) of the Digital Markets Act ("DMA").The Commission will carefully assess the feedback provided by interested parties and Alphabet. The input received may result in adjustments to the proposed measures and will feed in the Commission’s decision making the measures legally binding on Alphabet. The Commission will adopt a final decision by 27 July 2026 (within six months of opening the proceedings).

Current State aid rules for banks in difficulty, last updated in 2013, enable State aid to banks in difficulty to ensure financial stability while minimising distortions of competition. The revision of the State aid rules for banks in difficulty is undertaken with the view to bring consistency with the EU resolution (Crisis Management and Deposit Insurance) framework legislation and to bring simplification by replacing the six existing Communications into a single one.

Keynote speech of the EVP Ribera at the 23rd International Conference on Competition,Berlin, 12 March 2026. [...] "Competition enforcement can complement political priorities but parliaments decide on political priorities and trade-offs. So, in these uncertain geopolitical times I wish for competition policy that we know is principled, that we work to modernise and that we acknowledge is very relevant, but complementary." [...]

Speech by EVP Teresa Ribera at the 2025 CRA Brussels Conference,Brussels, 9 December 2025. [...] "As European Commissioners it is our duty to stand up, in order to defend values and the enforcement of our laws. As Commissioner in charge of competition, it is my duty to defend the competition toolkit, to enforce competition laws, including the DMA, even in times of weaponisation of trade." [...]

Keynote Speech by EVP Teresa Ribera at the OECD Global Forum on Competition,Paris, 1 December 2025. [...] "Competition law is not a tool for controlling markets or advancing narrow economic interests. It is an essential pillar of open, fair, and sustainable markets. It should never be a bargaining chip in trade negotiations or a tool for protectionism.Its purpose is to safeguard citizens' welfare and strengthen economies in a socially and environmentally responsible way.For this, international cooperation, dialogue and a strong commitment to multilateralism are essential." [...]

The European Commission has approved, under EU State aid rules, a €5 billion German scheme to help companies in industrial sectors decarbonise their production processes. The scheme contributes to achieving Germany's energy and climate targets, as well as the EU's sustainable prosperity and competitiveness objectives.

The European Commission has approved, under EU State aid rules, capital injections worth €813 million and €15 million per year in corporate income tax and dividend payment exemptions in favour of Lithuanian development bank Investicijos į Lietuvos ekonomiką ('ILTE'). The measures are provided by the Lithuanian Ministry of Finance.

The European Commission has unconditionally approved, under the EU Merger Regulation, the proposed acquisition by RTL Deutschland GmbH ('RTL') of Sky German Holdings GmbH ('Sky DACH'). The Commission concluded that the transaction would raise no competition concerns in the European Economic Area ('EEA').

The European Commission has opened an in-depth investigation to assess, under the EU Merger Regulation, the proposed creation of a joint venture between UPM-Kymmene Corporation ('UPM') and Sappi Limited ('Sappi'). The Commission is concerned that the transaction may reduce competition in certain markets for the production and supply of communication paper and specialty paper in the European Economic Area ('EEA') and result in higher prices, less choice or reduced quality.

The Commission has sent its preliminary findings to Google as part of the specification proceedings it started on 27 January 2026 under the Digital Markets Act (DMA). These preliminary findings outline the draft measures Google should implement to ensure that third parties have effective access and interoperability with key capabilities of Android.

The European Commission has sent preliminary findings to Google outlining proposed measures to comply with the Digital Markets Act (DMA). Under these proposed measures, Google should allow third party search engines to access search data, such as ranking, query, click and view data, on fair, reasonable and non-discriminatory terms.To ensure that the proposed measures are effective, the Commission invites interested parties to comment on them through a public consultation.

The European Commission has launched today a public consultation inviting comments on the draft of the new EU Merger Guidelines. These will replace the current Horizontal Merger Guidelines and the Non-Horizontal Merger Guidelines. This marks the most significant reform in EU merger control of the past two decades.See also the consultation's form, as well as the corresponding COMP Flash.

The European Commission has adopted a temporary State aid framework to enable Member States to support the EU economy in the context of the Middle East crisis. The Middle East crisis Temporary State aid Framework (METSAF) is a targeted and temporary framework to address the effects of the crisis on some of the most exposed sectors of the economy: agriculture, fishery, transport and energy-intensive industries. The METSAF will be in place until 31 December 2026. During its period of application, the Commission will keep the content, scope and duration of the Framework under review in the light of developments in the Middle East and in the general economic situation.See also Remarks by Executive Vice-President Ribera at the press conference on the METSAF.

The European Commission has today adopted the revised Technology Transfer Block Exemption Regulation ('TTBER') and Guidelines on the application of Article 101 of the Treaty to technology transfer agreements ('Guidelines'), following a thorough review of the rules that have been in place since 2014.See also COMP Flash on Updated EU competition rules for technology licensing agreements.

Executive Vice-President Vestager has informed President von der Leyen about her nomination as an official candidate by the Danish government for the position of President of the Management Committee of the European Investment Bank and requested an unpaid leave for the duration of the campaign. The President has granted the unpaid leave to Executive Vice-President Vestager underlining that during that period the relevant provisions of the Treaties and the Code of Conduct for the Members of the Commission continue to apply.

"I have received a letter from Professor Fiona Scott Morton that she has decided to withdraw and not take up the post as Chief Competition Economist. Having also spoken with Professor Scott Morton, I accept her decision, with regret and full respect for her integrity." [...]

The European Commission has appointed Fiona Scott Morton as Chief Competition Economist at the Directorate-General for Competition (DG COMP). This Commission department works to ensure that all companies compete equally and fairly on their merits within the single market, to the benefit of consumers, businesses and the European economy as a whole. She will take up her duties on 1 September 2023.

The Commission takes note of the judgment of the General Court dismissing the action for annulment brought by WTW Ahlers in case AT.40642 – Pierre Cardin. The Court confirms the Commission’s approach to the calculation of the fine, including the mode of application of the 10% turnover cap foreseen in Article 23(2) of Regulation 1/2003, which is a mechanism to ensure that the fine is proportionate.

The judgment confirms that the right to compensation for infringements of competition law includes the payment of interest. This right to receive interest existed already before its codification in the Damages Directive.The payment of interest shall compensate for the adverse effects resulting from the lapse of time since the occurrence of the harm caused by the infringement until the time when compensation is paid.

The judgment confirms that the no-poach agreement at issue between professional football clubs constitutes a manifest restriction of a competitive parameter (recruitment of players) which plays an essential role in high-level sport. Such agreements must be categorised, in principle, as having as their object the restriction of competition. However, the Court notes that the agreement at issue occurred in the very specific context brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic. Although the occurrence of the pandemic is not per se such as to justify making an exception to the prohibition of anticompetitive conduct, even in the field of sport where also the stability of the teams is important, the Portuguese court will have to take account of those circumstances for the purpose of determining whether that agreement has as its object the prevention, restriction or distortion of competition.The Court confirmed that the Wouters and Meca-Medina case law (which under certain conditions exempts agreements that pursue legitimate objectives from Article 101 TFEU) does not apply to agreements that restrict competition by object. Where the agreement in question cannot be categorised as a by object restriction, it can be justified by the pursuit of a legitimate objective in the public interest, in view of which it is appropriate, necessary and proportionate.See also Curia's press release (in PDF format).