Competition Weekly e-news

DG Competition will hold a conference for Young Experts on 10 february 2022. “Taking Competition Policy into the Future” will give a platform to the competition experts and scholars of tomorrow

The European Commission has approved, under the EU Merger Regulation, the proposed acquisition of IHS Markit by S&P Global. The approval is conditional on the divestment of businesses in the areas of commodity price assessments and financial data.

Executive Vice-President Vestager’s speech,
Italian Antitrust Association Annual Conference,
22 October 2021.
[...] "We all know our economy is facing huge challenges – not just the need to recover from the deep crisis which the coronavirus has caused, but also to rebuild in a way that’s consistent with our green and digital future. [...]
That’s why we’re investing so much at the moment, to make sure our work stays relevant. It’s why we’re developing new ways to spot cartels, and why we take an interest in new types of cartel, as well as more familiar ones." [...]

The Commission takes note of today’s judgments of the General Court which upheld two 2017 Commission's decisions approving, under the EU Merger Regulation, the acquisition of certain Air Berlin assets by EasyJet and Lufthansa respectively.
In its judgments, the General Court upheld the Commission’s assessment in both decisions. Notably, it confirmed that the route-by-route assessment traditionally carried out by the Commission in mergers involving airlines was not warranted in the two Air Berlin cases, considering that Air Berlin had completely and definitely ceased its operations at the time of the mergers.
Furthermore, the General Court found that the analytical framework applied by the Commission under the airport-by-airport approach was sufficiently and adequately explained.
See also:

• Judgment in Case T-296/18
• Curia's press release