Competition Weekly e-news

The European Commission invites comments on commitments offered by Insurance Ireland, an association of Irish insurers, to address competition concerns regarding access to its Insurance Link information exchange system.

The European Commission has approved, under the EU Merger Regulation, the proposed merger between Cargotec and Konecranes. The approval is conditional on the divestiture of certain businesses.

The European Commission has concluded that Hungary's decision to veto the acquisition of the Hungarian subsidiaries of the AEGON Group by Vienna Insurance Group AG Wiener Versicherung Gruppe (VIG) breached Article 21 of the EU Merger Regulation (EUMR), which confers upon the Commission exclusive competence for concentrations having Union dimension.

The European Commission has approved under EU State aid rules Cyprus's map for granting regional aid from 1 January 2022 to 31 December 2027, within the framework of the revised Regional aid Guidelines.

The Commission takes note of today’s judgments of the General Court dismissing UPS’s and ASL’s claims for damages against the Commission.
UPS’ and ASL’s claims stem from a 2013 Commission decision prohibiting the acquisition of TNT Express by UPS, which was annulled by the General Court in 2017 on the ground of a procedural irregularity. Those findings were subsequently upheld by the Court of Justice in 2019.
See also Curia's joint press release (in PDF) for cases T-834/17 and T-540/18.

Speech of Executive Vice-President Margrethe Vestagar,
The Riesenfeld Award ceremony – Berkeley, California,
22 February 2022. [...] "we have launched the new Technology Competition Policy Dialogue, which builds on our longstanding tradition of cooperation. The EU and the US may not end up with the exact same laws, but it is becoming increasingly clear that we share the same basic vision when it comes to developing digital policy to protect our citizens, and to keep our markets fair and open." [...]

The first issue in 2022 of the Competition State Aid Brief in the first half of 2021 State aid expenditure increased significantly for Member States most hit by second and later waves of the COVID-19 outbreaks, while the spending rate has slowed down in the Member States most hit by the first wave, with the exception of Italy and Spain.

We are pleased to announce that a number of DG COMP colleagues have written papers which have been nominated in the Concurrences Antitrust Writing Awards 2022. The two nominated articles fall under the “Soft Law” category. 

• Concerted Practices: "Competition policy in support of Europe's green ambition";
• Cross-Border Issues: "Proposal for a regulation of the European Parliament and of the Council on foreign subsidies distorting the internal market".