Overview   Antitrust

The Commission takes note of the judgment of the General Court. In its judgment, the General Court upheld Google’s application for the annulment of the 2019 Commission’s decision in the Google AdSense case.
The Commission will carefully study the judgment and reflect on possible next steps.
See also Curia's press release (in PDF format).

The Commission takes note of the judgment of the General Court. In its judgment, the General Court dismissed Qualcomm’s action for annulment of a 2019 Commission decision imposing a fine of €242 million on Qualcomm for predatory pricing.
In its judgment, the General Court fully upheld all of the substantive findings in the Commission’s decision, but partly accepted Qualcomm’s plea concerning the calculation of the amount of the fine, which results in a minor reduction of the fine by approximately €3.5 million.
See also Curia's press release (in PDF format).

The Commission takes note of the judgment of the Court of Justice of the European Union which upholds the Commission's Google Shopping Decision. In that Decision, the Commission found that Google favoured, within its general search results, its own comparison-shopping service “Google Shopping”, over those services provided by its rivals.
The Court of Justice confirms that, in certain circumstances, the favourable treatment of its own services by a dominant company can be a breach of Article 102 TFEU.
See also Curia's press release (in PDF format), as well as the remarks by Executive Vice-President Vestager.

The European Commission has published today a Staff Working Document (‘SWD') summarising the findings of the evaluation of the  EU Regulations which lay out the procedures for the application of EU competition rules (Regulation 1/2003 and Regulation 773/2004).
See also the corresponding Q&A document.

The European Commission has launched today a public consultation inviting all interested parties to comment on draft Guidelines on exclusionary abuses of dominance.
Article 102 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union (‘TFEU') prohibits dominant companies from engaging in abusive behaviour, including behaviour that excludes competitors from the market. Examples of such exclusionary abuses of dominance include predatory pricing, margin squeeze, exclusive dealing and refusal to supply.

Against the background of market developments and the evolution of the EU Court’s case law, on 27 March 2023 the Commission launched the process leading to the adoption of guidelines on exclusionary abuses with a Call for Evidence. The replies to the Call for Evidence have been taken into account in the preparation of the draft Guidelines.
The draft Guidelines aim at reflecting the EU courts' case law on exclusionary abuses in light of the extensive experience gained by the Commission in the enforcement of Article 102 TFEU. This will help increasing legal certainty to the benefit of consumers, businesses and the national competition authorities and national courts.
See also the EC press release.

The European Commission has made commitments offered by Vifor legally binding under EU antitrust rules. The commitments address the Commission's competition concerns relating to Vifor's potential disparagement of Monofer, the closest - and potentially only – competitor of Vifor's flagship intravenous iron medicine in Europe, Ferinject.

The European Commission has made commitments offered by Apple legally binding under EU antitrust rules. The commitments address the Commission's competition concerns relating to Apple's refusal to grant rivals access to a standard technology used for contactless payments with iPhones in stores (‘Near-Field-Communication (NFC)' or ‘tap and go').
See also Remarks by Executive Vice-President Vestager, as well as the corresponding COMP Flash.

On 29 April 2019, the Commission made commitments offered by Mastercard and Visa legally binding under EU antitrust rules. The companies committed to significantly reduce (on average by around 40%) their multilateral interchange fees for payments in the European Economic Area with consumer cards issued elsewhere (inter-regional interchange fees). These commitments are set to be in place until November 2024.

The Commission takes note of the judgments of the Court of Justice of the European Union upholding the Commission’s appeal against a 2018 judgment of the General Court. In 2018, the General Court annulled parts of a 2014 Commission decision. In its 2014 decision, the Commission imposed fines totalling €427 million on Servier and five generic companies for curbing entry of cheaper versions of a cardiovascular medicine. In particular, the Commission found that all companies entered into restrictive agreements under Article 101 TFEU and that Servier put in place a strategy aimed at systematically buying out any competitive threats that amounted to an abuse of dominant position under Article 102 TFEU.
By upholding the Commission’s appeal, the Court of Justice confirmed most of the Commission’s findings included in the 2014 decision. At the same time, the Court of Justice referred back to the General Court the assessment of certain findings for it to rule on them.
See also Curia's press release (in PDF format).

The European Commission has informed Microsoft of its preliminary view that Microsoft has breached EU antitrust rules by tying its communication and collaboration product Teams to its popular productivity applications included in its suites for businesses Office 365 and Microsoft 365.

The European Commission has informed Czechia that measures appointing EKO-KOM as the only company authorised for the collection and recovery of packaging waste for over two decades may be in breach of the EU competition rules.

The Commission takes note of the judgment of the Court of Justice of the European Union rejecting the Commission’s appeal against the judgment of the General Court of 19 January 2022 in case T-610/19 Deutsche Telekom v Commission. In its 2022 judgment, the General Court upheld Deutsche Telekom’s appeal against a 2019 Commission decision. In its 2019 decision, the Commission rejected Deutsche Telekom’s request for payment of default interests on the excess fine amount provisionally paid by the company. This amount was consequently reimbursed by the Commission following the 2018 General Court’s judgment which reduced the amount of the fine.
The Commission will carefully study the judgment and assess its implications.
See also Curia's press release (in PDF format).

The European Commission has fined Mondelēz International, Inc. (Mondelēz) €337.5 million for hindering the cross-border trade of chocolate, biscuits and coffee products between Member States, in breach of EU competition rules. The Commission remains committed to bringing down unjustified barriers to ensure a better functioning of the Single Market. Territorial supply constraints by suppliers are a type of non-regulatory barriers to a proper functioning of the Single Market. 
See also Remarks by Executive Vice-President Vestager.

Wage-fixing and no-poach agreements generally qualify as restrictions by object under Article 101(1) TFEU
While the pro-competitive effects of such agreements must be considered if demonstrated and significant, net efficiencies are uncertain and less restrictive means of achieving them are generally available
Most of the cases are likely to be dealt with by National Competition Authorities due to the geographic scope
However, the Commission is actively investigating cases in this sector and will remain coordinated within the European Competition Network.

The European Commission invites comments on commitments offered by Vifor to address competition concerns over the alleged disparagement of its closest - and potentially only – competing treatment in Europe for intravenous iron treatment, Pharmacosmos' Monofer.

The Commission takes note of today’s preliminary ruling of the Court of Justice in the Heureka case (C 605/21). The Court ruled against limitation rules like the former Czech rules in issue, which allowed the limitation period to start running before the conduct complained of had ceased and which did not allow that period to be suspended or interrupted while the European Commission was investigating the same allegedly anti-competitive conduct.
The Commission will study with care the detail of the ruling.
See also Curia's press release (in PDF format).

The European Commission has opened a formal antitrust investigation to assess whether animal health company Zoetis may have breached EU competition rules by preventing the market launch of a competing novel biologic medicine used to treat chronic pain in dogs.

The European Commission has fined Apple over €1.8 billion for abusing its dominant position on the market for the distribution of music streaming apps to iPhone and iPad users (‘iOS users') through its App Store. In particular, the Commission found that Apple applied restrictions on app developers preventing them from informing iOS users about alternative and cheaper music subscription services available outside of the app (‘anti-steering provisions'). This is illegal under EU antitrust rules.
See also Remarks by Executive Vice-President Vestager.

The European Commission has informed the Greek electricity provider Public Power Corporation (‘PPC') of its preliminary view that it has breached EU antitrust rules by selling electricity in the Greek wholesale market below cost, thereby excluding its main rivals.