The Commission takes note of the preliminary ruling of the Court of Justice of the European Union confirming that the concept of ‘communication to the public’ of protected works in hotel rooms does not depend on the extent to which such hotel rooms are actually occupied.
The Commission also takes note of the Court’s clarification that, depending on the availability and reliability of data, collective management organisations of copyrighted works are required to take the occupancy rates of hotels into account when calculating the level of royalties to be paid by hotels, failure of which may, depending on all the relevant circumstances of the individual case, contribute to the finding of an abuse of a dominant position consisting in the application of unfair prices within the meaning of Article 102(a) TFEU.
Antitrust
The Commission takes note of the Court’s ruling on case C-245/24 Lukoil.
The Court clarified that where a dominant company has purchased, through a privatisation contract, fuel storage facilities and pipelines originally built by the State, it may constitute an abuse of dominant position to refuse competitors access to them. Similarly, it may constitute an abuse for a dominant company to refuse access to facilities owned by the State, but operated by that company under a concession contract.
The Court further explained that, for a finding of an abuse, a competition authority does not need to show that access to the facilities in question was indispensable, where legislation, regulation or contractual arrangements prohibit the undertaking from refusing third parties access to that infrastructure. Nor it is necessary to establish indispensability where the privatisation process or the procedure for granting the concession did not ensure the competitive nature of the price and conditions for acquisition.
The Commission will carefully study the judgment.
The Commission takes note of the Court’s ruling on case C-260/24 Lukoil.
The Court explained that the finding of an abusive margin squeeze by a vertically integrated undertaking requires the identification of an upstream market and a downstream market linked to that upstream market. A competition authority must establish that the undertaking concerned is dominant in the upstream market. It must also determine whether the spread between the prices of the products on the upstream market and those on the downstream market is either negative or insufficient to cover the specific costs which the dominant undertaking has to incur in supplying its own products on the downstream market, so that that spread does not allow a competitor that is as efficient as that undertaking to compete on the downstream market.
The Court also provided guidance on the definition of relevant markets.
The Commission will carefully study the judgment.
The European Commission takes note of today’s judgment by the General Court related to Intel’s appeal against a 2023 Commission antitrust decision. In its 2023 decision, the Commission re-imposed a fine of around €376.36 million on Intel for a previously established abuse of dominant position in the market for computer chips called x86 central processing units (‘CPUs').
In its judgment, the General Court upheld the Commission’s 2023 decision, confirmed the Commission’s competence to reimpose a fine on Intel for the previously established infringement, but reduced the amount of the fine.
The Commission will carefully study the judgment and reflect on possible next steps.
See also Curia's press release (in PDF format).
The European Commission has opened a formal antitrust investigation to assess whether Google has breached EU competition rules by using the content of web publishers, as well as content uploaded on the online video-sharing platform YouTube, for artificial intelligence (‘AI') purposes. The investigation will notably examine whether Google is distorting competition by imposing unfair terms and conditions on publishers and content creators, or by granting itself privileged access to such content, thereby placing developers of rival AI models at a disadvantage.
The European Commission has opened a formal antitrust investigation to assess whether Meta's new policy on artificial intelligence (‘AI') providers' access to WhatsApp may breach EU competition rules.
The European Commission invites comments on commitments offered by SAP to address possible anticompetitive practices in the provision of maintenance and support services for an on-premises type of software, licensed by SAP, used for the management of companies' business operations and called Enterprise Resource Planning (‘ERP').
The European Commission has opened a formal antitrust investigation to assess whether the energy drinks company Red Bull has illegally restricted competition in the energy drinks sector in breach of EU competition rules that prohibit the abuse of a dominant market position.
DG Competition will hold a “Reality Check” in the form of an online workshop to discuss with stakeholders some of the key proposed changes to the Technology Transfer Block Exemption Regulation (TTBER) and its accompanying Guidelines.
The objective of the workshop is to gather more detailed, practical input on how such proposed changes may operate in real-life situations and how they might affect business incentives and practices. This will help ensure that the revised rules are well targeted and effective in delivering their intended benefits.
The reality check will take place on the afternoon of Wednesday, 12 November 2025.
Stakeholders with knowledge or experience in applying the TTBER and the Guidelines who wish to participate are invited to complete the registration form.
This study, commissioned by the European Commission's Directorate-General for Competition (DG COMP), evaluates the 2008 Guarantee Notice, in line with the Commission’s Better Regulation principles. Key findings from the study highlight a substantial variation in guarantee pricing across Member States, reflecting differing risk assessments and market conditions. Evidence suggests that current pricing methods generate lower guarantee prices compared to market benchmarks suggesting that there is significant room for enhancement to better reflect the risk profiles of beneficiaries and to streamline administrative processes.
The study also explores the impact of guarantees on access to finance, market competition and efficiency, revealing that guarantees generally improve access to finance without significantly distorting market competition. Overall, the study provides insights on the regulatory framework governing financial guarantees, emphasizing the need for clearer guidelines to enhance consistency and effectiveness across the EU.
The European Commission is carrying out unannounced inspections at the premises of a company active in the vaccines sector.
The Commission has concerns that the inspected company may have violated EU antitrust rules that prohibit abuses of a dominant market position (Article 102 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union). In particular, the Commission is investigating possible exclusionary practices that may amount to anticompetitive disparagement.
The European Commission has opened a formal investigation to assess whether SAP may have distorted competition in the aftermarket for maintenance and support services related to an on-premises type of software, licensed by SAP, used for the management of companies' business operations and called Enterprise Resource Planning (‘ERP'), in the European Economic Area (‘EEA'). In parallel to the opening of proceedings, the Commission has adopted a Preliminary Assessment summarising the main facts of the case and identifying its competition concerns. To address the Commission's concerns, SAP may now submit commitments.
The ongoing revision of the 2014 Technology Transfer Block Exemption Regulation (TTBER) and the accompanying TT-Guidelines, required due to the expiry of the current TTBER in 2026, dovetails with the European Commission’s efforts to modernise the legal framework governing technology licensing within the internal market. The competition law regime/framework for data licensing agreements is particularly important in this context.
The European Commission has accepted commitments from Microsoft to address EU competition concerns relating to its popular team collaboration platform Teams. These commitments will henceforth be legally binding under EU antitrust rules.
See also COMP Flash | Microsoft's commitments on Teams.
The European Commission has fined Google €2.95 billion for breaching EU antitrust rules by distorting competition in the advertising technology industry (‘adtech'). It did so by favouring its own online display advertising technology services to the detriment of competing providers of advertising technology services, advertisers and online publishers. The Commission has ordered Google (i) to bring these self-preferencing practices to an end; and (ii) to implement measures to cease its inherent conflicts of interest along the adtech supply chain. Google has now 60 days to inform the Commission about how it intends to do so.
See also Statement by Executive Vice-President Ribera , as well as COMP Flash.
The European Commission has made commitments offered by Corning legally binding under EU antitrust rules. The commitments address the Commission's competition concerns over Corning's conclusion of allegedly anticompetitive exclusive agreements for the supply of Alkali-aluminosilicate glass (‘Alkali-AS Glass'), a special type of glass mainly used as cover glass in smartphones and other handheld electronic devices.
The Commission issued today its first opinion regarding the compatibility of a sustainability agreement with competition rules for the agricultural sector. The opinion concerns an agreement on the setting of indicative prices for wine produced in accordance with the standards for organic and for Haute Valeur Environnementale (‘HVE') wines, in the French region of Occitanie. The envisaged agreement is between producers of wine meeting these standards and buyers of such wine, to guide bulk wine transactions. The objective is to incentivise the relevant producers to maintain their sustainable production practices.
The European Commission is launching today a Call for Evidence and a public consultation inviting stakeholders to give feedback on the future of the EU procedures for the application of EU competition rules. Based on the results of the evaluation, completed in September 2024 with the publication of a Staff Working Document, the Commission has decided to launch the process for revising the relevant rules, notably with the aim of keeping up with transformative changes such as digitalisation of the economy. All interested stakeholders can express their views by 2 October 2025.
See also COMP Flash.
The Commission seeks the views of stakeholders on policy options for the revision of the procedural framework for the enforcement of EU competition rules, which is currently set out in Regulation 1/2003 and its implementing act Regulation 773/2004. This initiative will lead to a legislative proposal to revise EU antitrust procedural rules to ensure that the enforcement of EU rules on competition remains effective and fit for purpose.
The call for evidence will focus on the main areas the Commission is currently considering revising in the Regulations. The public consultation questionnaire will seek stakeholders' views on the reform options, including detailed feedback on the costs and benefits of such possible reform options.
Interested stakeholders can express their views by 2 October 2025. See also the European Commission's press release.
The European Commission invites comments on commitments offered by Microsoft to address competition concerns over tying its communication and collaboration product Teams to its popular productivity applications included in its suites for businesses Office 365 and Microsoft 365, such as Microsoft Word and Microsoft Outlook.