The European Commission welcomes the positive developments at Amsterdam airport enabling new entrant JetBlue Airways Corporation (‘JetBlue') to continue operating at the airport over the IATA Summer 2024 Season.

The European Commission invites comments on commitments offered by Apple to address competition concerns over access restrictions to the technology used for contactless payments with mobile devices in stores (Near-Field Communication – ‘NFC').
The Commission invites all interested parties to submit their views on Apple's proposed commitments within one month from the publication of a summary of the proposed commitments in the EU's Official Journal. The full text of the commitments will be available on the Commission's competition website.

The European Commission has made commitments by Renfe legally binding under EU antitrust rules. The commitments address the Commission's preliminary competition concerns relating to Renfe's refusal to supply all its content and real-time data related to its passenger rail transport services to rival ticketing platforms.
See also DG Competition Director for Transport Henrik Morch telling you all about it.

The Commission takes note of today’s judgment of the Court of Justice of the EU finding that certain rules and conduct of FIFA and UEFA regarding the prior approval of new football competitions and restrictions concerning the exclusive marketing of the rights for competitions organised by FIFA and UEFA are incompatible with EU competition law and the freedom to provide services.
The Court of Justice rules that the set of rules invoked by FIFA and UEFA to prevent a new independent football competition called ‘European Super League’ lacked the necessary framework to ensure that they are transparent, objective, non-discriminatory and proportionate. It also clarifies that Article 165 TFEU cannot be regarded as exempting sport from all or some of the other provisions of primary EU law such as competition law and freedom of movement provisions.
The Court of Justice establishes that the power of a sports federation such as FIFA or UEFA, holding a dominant position, to determine the conditions for access to the market by applying certain rules and related sanctions in an arbitrary manner, without a framework of substantive criteria which are transparent, clear and precise, may infringe competition law. In particular, such rules and sanctions may, by their very nature, infringe Article 102 TFEU and constitute a restriction of competition ‘by object’ within the meaning of Article 101(1) TFEU. The same applies to restrictions concerning the exclusive marketing of the rights related to the competitions organised by FIFA and UEFA itself.
Under those circumstances, the Court of Justice considers that the system of prior authorisation for new football competitions could not be regarded as inherent in, and proportionate for, achieving legitimate objectives related to questions of interest solely to sport, in particular the open, meritocratic nature of the competitions concerned, and ensuring a certain form of ‘solidarity redistribution’ within football.

The Commission takes note of the judgment of the Court of Justice of the EU relating to the so-called ‘home-grown player’ rules (‘HGP’ rules) of the Union of European Football Associations (‘UEFA’) and the Royal Belgian Football Association (‘URBSFA’).
The Court confirms that the HGP rules could be contrary to EU law. These rules require football clubs that participate in their competitions to list a mandatory number of players trained by the club or in the national football association to which the club belongs.
The Court clarifies the relevant assessment framework under EU law and leaves it to the referring national court to make the final assessment on whether the HGP rules would constitute a restriction of competition prohibited by Article 101 TFEU and/or a restriction on the free movement of football players prohibited by Article 45 TFEU.

The Commission takes note of the judgment of the European Court of Justice that dismisses the appeal of the International Skating Union (ISU) against the General Court’s judgment upholding the Decision of the Commission of 8 December 2017. In its Decision the Commission found that the International Skating Union’s (ISU) Eligibility Rules restricted competition, as they limited athletes’ commercial freedom to participate in international speed skating events by organisers other than the ISU and its members and prevented potential competitors from organising and commercially exploiting such events.
The Court of Justice confirmed that the organisation of sporting competitions constitutes an economic activity that must comply with competition rules. Sports federations may adopt and ensure compliance with rules relating to the organisation of competitions, provided that such rules are transparent, objective, non-discriminatory and proportionate. Otherwise, such rules may exclude competitors and restrict the organisation of new competitions, preventing athletes from participating in those competitions and audiences from watching them.
See also Curia's press release (in PDF format).

The European Commission adopted today Guidelines on how to design sustainability agreements in the field of agriculture (‘Guidelines') using a novel exclusion from EU competition rules introduced by the recently reformed Common Agricultural Policy.

In the context of the European Commission’s  evaluation of the competition rules for technology transfer agreements, DG Competition is holding an online workshop in the afternoon of Wednesday 6 December 2023. The aim of the workshop is to gather more information on the functioning of the Technology Transfer Block Exemption Regulation (“TTBER”) and the accompanying Guidelines on technology transfer agreements. The workshop will focus on areas of the rules that have attracted the most comments in the recent call for evidence and public consultation.
For more details on the TTBER, please check this page out.
Update: Registration for the event is now closed.

The Commission takes note of the judgment by the General Court which annulled a Commission decision of 2018. In its decision, the Commission fined Bulgarian Energy Holding (BEH), its gas supply subsidiary Bulgargaz and its gas infrastructure subsidiary Bulgartransgaz (together the BEH group) for blocking competitors' access to key gas infrastructure in Bulgaria, in breach of EU antitrust rules.
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 is currently evaluating Regulations 1/2003 and 773/2004, which form the framework for the enforcement of Articles 101 and 102 TFEU. In this context, DG Competition is organising a specialised  interactive workshop to gather stakeholder views on the effectiveness, efficiency, relevance, coherence and EU added value of this enforcement framework.

The workshop will take place in Brussels on Thursday, 12 October 2023, from 9:00 until 17:30.

The European Commission has decided not to extend the EU legal framework which exempts liner shipping consortia from EU antitrust rules (Consortia Block Exemption Regulation or ‘CBER'). The Commission has concluded that the CBER no longer promotes competition in the shipping sector and therefore it will let it expire on 25 April 2024.
See also Q&A on the Consortia Block Exemption Regulation.

The Commission takes note of the judgment of the General Court. In its judgment, the Court dismissed Valve’s appeal against a 2021 Commission decision. In its decision, the Commission imposed a fine on Valve for restricting, together with five publishers of PC videogames, cross-border sales of certain PC video games on the basis of the geographical location of users within the European Economic Area, by entering into so called “geo-blocking” practices.
In its judgment, the General Court fully upheld the Commission’s assessment and decision.
The General Court also clarified the rules on the relationship between EU competition law and copyright, confirming the Commission’s position that the latter does not guarantee the copyright holders the opportunity to demand the highest possible remuneration or to engage in conduct such as to lead to artificial price differences between the partitioned national markets in violation of Article 101 TFEU.
See also Curia's press release (in PDF format).

The European Commission has 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'). Intel engaged in a series of anticompetitive practices aimed at excluding competitors from the relevant market in breach of EU antitrust rules.
See also European Commission's Questions & Answers.

The Commission takes note of today’s preliminary ruling by the Court of Justice of the European Union.
The Court of Justice clarifies that Articles 106(1) and 102 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union preclude national legislation, which grants the holder of an exclusive licence for the exploitation of mineral water springs the possibility of obtaining, without a competitive tendering procedure, an extension of its licence for successive five-year periods, (i) where this legislation would result in an abuse of a dominant position by the licence holder through the mere exercise of its preferential rights, or (ii) those rights are liable to create a situation in which the licence holder is led to commit such abuses.

The European Commission is carrying out unannounced inspections at the premises of a company active in medical devices for cardiovascular applications.

The European Commission has informed Pierre Cardin and its licensee Ahlers of its preliminary view that the companies may have breached EU antitrust rules by restricting cross-border sales of Pierre Cardin-licensed clothing, as well as sales of such products to specific customers.

The European Commission has opened a formal investigation to assess whether Microsoft may have breached EU competition rules by tying or bundling its communication and collaboration product Teams to its popular suites for businesses Office 365 and Microsoft 365.

The Commission decided to refer Estonia to the Court of Justice of the European Union for failing to fully transpose the ECN+ Directive (Directive (EU) 2019/1) into national legislation.

The Commission takes note of the judgment of the Court of Justice of the European Union.
In its judgment, the Court clarified that, to the extent necessary to establish an abuse of a dominant position under article 102 TFEU, a national competition authority can take into account whether the investigated conduct complies with rules other than those relating to competition law, such as the General Data Protection Regulation (‘GDPR’). Stressing the importance of accessing and using personal data as a significant parameter of competition in the digital economy, the Court held that the incompatibility of a certain conduct with the GDPR can be an important indicator in finding whether it constitutes an abuse of a dominant position.
At the same time, a national competition authority is required to cooperate sincerely with the authorities monitoring the application of that regulation and to not depart from any decision taken by such authorities in relation to the same or a similar conduct. The competition authority, for example, must consult the authority monitoring the application of the GDPR if it has doubts about the scope of an existing decision of the latter or if similar conduct is being assessed by the latter or when it considers that certain conduct is incompatible with the GDPR, which in turn puts the consulted authority under a duty to reply within a reasonable deadline. The national competition authority remains, however, free to draw its own conclusions from the point of view of the application of competition law.
See also Curia's press release (in PDF format).

The European Commission invites comments on commitments offered by Renfe to address competition concerns over its alleged refusal to supply full content and real-time data to rival ticketing platforms operating in the Spanish online passenger rail ticket distribution market.