The Commission takes note of the judgment of the General Court in relation to the Commission’s decision of 2 December 2021 that imposed a fine on Credit Suisse, now UBS, for its participation in 2012 in one of the Forex cartels ( AT.40135).
The Court fully confirmed that Credit Suisse participated in the cartel and rejected all pleas in that regard, but reduced the amount of the fine from EUR 83 million to EUR 29 million, on the basis that the Commission should have taken into account alternative data for such calculation.
The judgment only concerns the participation in the cartel by, and the fine imposed on, Credit Suisse. All other banks settled their case with the European Commission.
The Commission will carefully study the judgment and reflect on possible next steps.
See also Curia's press release (in PDF format).
Cartels
In this episode of the Antitrust Code podcast by Concurrences, Maria Jaspers (European Commission) and Despina Pachnou (OECD) discuss key themes from the Compendium of International Cartels book, published by Concurrences.
They examine leniency programs, looking at their effectiveness in detecting cartels and the challenges they present.
The European Commission has issued informal guidance on the compatibility with EU competition rules of a sustainability agreement for the joint purchasing and the setting of technical specifications for electric container-handling equipment used in ports. This would accelerate the shift from diesel to electric equipment in EU ports, contributing to reducing CO2 emissions.
The European Commission has issued an informal guidance letter to provide antitrust guidance for the creation of a licensing negotiation group in the automotive sector (the Automotive Licensing Negotiation Group or ‘ALNG') that would negotiate licences to use technologies covered by standard essential patents (‘SEPs'). With this guidance letter, the Commission aims to contribute to increasing the competitiveness of the EU's automotive sector, as set out in the context of the Industrial Action Plan for the European Automotive sector put forward in March 2025.
The Commission takes note of the judgment of the General Court. In its judgment, the Court dismisses the majority of Michelin’s appeal against the Commission decision ordering an inspection at Michelin, but annuls it insofar as it relates to an earlier suspected infringement period.
The General Court considers that the Commission had sufficiently serious indicia concerning the main period covered by the Commission decision to conduct an unannounced inspection at the premises of Michelin to investigate its suspected participation in a cartel in violation of Article 101 TFEU. Nevertheless, the General Court finds that the indicia were not sufficient for an earlier period and annuls the inspection decision insofar as it relates to that earlier period.
The judgment confirms that the inspection decision was neither arbitrary nor disproportionate in respect of the suspected infringement during the main period.
The Commission will carefully study the judgment and reflect on possible next steps.
The inspections carried out at other premises were neither challenged, nor annulled.
The European Commission has fined Alchem International Pvt. Ltd. and its subsidiary Alchem International (H.K.) Limited (together ‘Alchem') €489,000 for breaching EU antitrust rules. The Commission has found that, for more than 12 years, Alchem participated in a cartel concerning an important pharmaceutical ingredient.
The Commission has fined Delivery Hero and Glovo, two major food delivery companies, a total of €329 million for participating in a cartel in the online food delivery sector. In particular, the two companies (i) agreed not to poach each other's employees; (ii) exchanged commercially sensitive information; and (iii) allocated geographic markets. The infringement covered the European Economic Area (‘EEA') and lasted four years. Cartels like this reduce choice for consumers and business partners, reduce opportunities for employees and reduce incentives to compete and innovate.
See also the corresponding COMP Flash.
The Commission takes note of the judgment of the Court of Justice in Case C-581/23 Beevers Kaas.
The judgment clarifies under which conditions an exclusive distribution system may benefit from an exemption under the 2010 Vertical Block Exemption Regulation.
The Court confirmed for the first time that one of the conditions for an active sales ban imposed to protect an exclusive distribution system to benefit from the 2010 Vertical Block Exemption regulation is that the supplier must obtain the (express or implicit) acceptance of the sales ban by all its other distributors in the EEA.
The Commission takes note of the judgment of the General Court. In its judgment, the Court dismisses Symrise’s appeal against the Commission decision ordering an inspection at Symrise AG.
The General Court upholds the Commission decision that entitled the Commission to conduct an unannounced inspection at the premises of Symrise for investigating its possible participation in a cartel in violation of Article 101 TFEU.
The judgment confirms that the inspection decision was neither arbitrary nor disproportionate.
The Commission has fined 15 major car manufacturers and the European Automobiles Manufacturers' Association (ACEA) a total of around €458 million for participating in a long-lasting cartel concerning end-of-life vehicle recycling. Mercedes-Benz was not fined, as it revealed the cartel to the Commission under the leniency programme. All companies admitted their involvement in the cartel and agreed to settle the case.
The Commission takes note of the judgment by the General Court upholding a 2021 Commission decision. In its decision, the Commission found that Bank of America, Natixis, Nomura, RBS (now NatWest), UBS, UniCredit and WestLB (now Portigon) breached EU antitrust rules through the participation of a group of traders in a cartel in the primary and secondary market for European Government Bonds (‘EGB').
In its judgment, the General Court found that the Commission had a legitimate interest to address the decision to all cartelists, irrespective of whether they were subject to fines. In addition, it largely upheld the amount of the fines imposed by the Commission, with the exception of those imposed on Nomura and UniCredit, which the General Court slightly reduced.
See also Curia's press release (in PDF format).
The Commission takes note of the judgment of the General Court dismissing an appeal against a 2023 Commission decision. In its 2023 decision, the Commission rejected a complaint against a number of companies active in quartz sand extraction in Belgium for alleged anticompetitive practices. In particular, the Commission found that the complaint did not involve a sufficient Union interest to justify further investigation, especially considering that the matter had already been brought to the attention of a Belgian court and that the latter appeared well placed to remedy the issues complained of.
In its judgment, the General Court confirmed, among others, that the Commission may reject complaints when, in cases with a predominantly national dimension, national courts are well placed to address the issues concerned.
The European Commission is carrying out unannounced inspections at the premises of companies active in the non-alcoholic drinks sector in several Member States. In parallel, the Commission has sent out a formal request for information to a company active in the personal care sector.
The European Commission has launched a call for evidence and a public consultation to seek feedback on possible revisions of the Technology Transfer Block Exemption Regulation (‘TTBER') and the accompanying Guidelines.
This initiative forms part of the impact assessment phase, which follows the evaluation concluded in November 2024. The aim of the evaluation was to gather evidence on the functioning of the TTBER and the Guidelines, for the Commission to determine whether it should let the rules expire, prolong their duration or revise them in view of their expiry on 30 April 2026.
All interested parties can submit their views in any official EU language on the Commission's Have your Say Portal until 25 April 2025.
The Commission takes note of the preliminary ruling of the Court of Justice of the European Union confirming that for the establishment of a restriction of competition ‘by effect’ with-in the meaning of Article 101(1) TFEU it may suffice to demonstrate potential restrictive effects on competition, provided that these are sufficiently appreciable.
The European Commission has fined Pierre Cardin and its largest licensee Ahlers a total of €5.7 million for breaching EU antitrust rules by restricting cross-border sales of Pierre Cardin-branded clothing, as well as sales of such products to specific customers.
The Commission takes note of the judgment of the General Court in case T-561/21 rejecting HSBC’s appeal against a 2021 Commission’s decision. In 2021, the Commission re-adopted a prohibition decision against HSBC, following the 2019 partial annulment by the General Court of the previous Commission’s decision in the euro interest rate derivatives cartel case of 2016, on the basis that the Commission had failed adequately to explain part of the methodology used for calculating the fines imposed. In its 2021 decision, the Commission explained in further detail how the fine was calculated and slightly reduced the fine amount previously imposed on the company.
In its judgment, the General Court upheld the Commission’s assessment and decision of 2021.
See also Curia's press release (in PDF format).
The European Commission invites comments on commitments offered by Corning to address competition concerns over its alleged exclusive dealing in relation to the supply of Alkali-aluminosilicate glass (‘Alkali-AS Glass'), a special type of glass mainly used as cover glass in handheld electronic devices.
The European Commission has today published a Staff Working Document (‘SWD') that summarises the findings of its evaluation of the Technology Transfer Block Exemption Regulation (‘TTBER') and the accompanying Guidelines on the application of Article 101 of the Treaty to technology transfer agreements (‘Guidelines').
The aim of the evaluation was to gather evidence on the functioning of the TTBER and of the accompanying Guidelines, for the Commission to determine whether it should let the rules expire, prolong their duration or revise them. In view of the findings of the evaluation, the Commission will now launch an impact assessment to examine policy options for a revision of the rules.
The Technology Transfer Block Exemption Regulation (“TTBER”) creates a safe harbour under EU competition law for certain categories of technology transfer agreements. Together with the TTBER, the Commission also published the Technology Transfer Guidelines (“TTGs”). Both instruments are currently being evaluated by the Commission and this study will contribute to the evaluation by answering the evaluation questions set out in the specification for the study, based on qualitative and quantitative evidence. The evaluation questions relate to the following four evaluation criteria: (i) Relevance; (ii) Effectiveness; (iii) Efficiency; and (iv) Coherence.
See also the European Commission's press release.