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State aid
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26/01/2023
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Commission approves €21 million Polish scheme to compensate tourism sector for damages suffered due to restrictive measures at the Polish-Belarusian border
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The European Commission has approved, under EU State aid rules, a €21 million (PLN 100 million) Polish scheme to compensate companies active in the tourism sector for damages suffered as result of the restrictive measures adopted by Poland in response to the instrumentalisation of migrants by the Belarusian authorities at the EU's external border.
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Court
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25/01/2023
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Società Navigazione Siciliana v Commission
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The Commission takes note of the judgment of the General Court upholding a 2021 State aid decision.
In the decision, the Commission concluded that the public service compensation granted since 2009 to Siremar and later to its acquirer Società di Navigazione Siciliana for the operation of ferry services in Italy is in line with EU State aid rules. However, the Commission found that the exemptions from certain taxes, which were granted to Siremar and Società di Navigazione Siciliana in the context of the privatisation of Siremar, constituted aid incompatible with the internal market. The Commission therefore ordered Italy to recover the aid.
In its judgment, the General Court fully upheld the Commission’s assessment.
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25/01/2023
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GEA Group v Commission
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The Commission takes note of today’s judgment of the General Court. In its judgment, the General Court dismissed GEA’s appeal against a 2016 Commission decision amending a previous one adopted in 2009. In its 2009 decision, the Commission imposed a fine of €3.3 million on GEA for participating in a cartel in the heat stabilisers sector. In 2016, the Commission adopted an amending decision maintaining GEA’s fine but reducing the fine imposed on another addressee, in application of the legal fine ceiling.
The General Court confirmed that the Commission did not infringe procedural rules or GEA's rights of defence in adopting the 2016 amending decision. It also upheld the method of calculation of the fine applied by the Commission.
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Conferences/Speeches
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25/01/2023
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State aid High Level Forum of Member States
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Speech by Executive Vice-President Margrethe Vestager,
State aid High Level Forum of Member States, Brussels,
25 January 2023.
[...] "We also need to complete the Single Market: reducing barriers and regulatory burden, enforcing existing rules. The untapped potential of the Single Market can bring much more than what State aid will ever be able to deliver. The benefits of removing Member State-level barriers to the Single Market for goods and services alone could amount to €713 billion by the end of 2029.
We must make sure that the word ‘green’ doesn’t become a euphemism for a new kind of protectionism." [...]
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25/01/2023
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Europe’s Green Industrial Future
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Speech by Executive Vice-President Margrethe Vestager,
Cleantech for Europe Summit, Brussels,
25 January 2023.
[...] "But more may be needed in sectors strategic for the green transition and impacted both by high, volatile, unpredictible energy prices and by large amounts of subsidies in third countries. That’s why we are working on simplifying our State aid rules and speeding up the use of those rules. We have red lines too. One is that we will not sacrifice the Single Market. Because as said, a well-functioning Single Market is part of the engine that will make this work." [...]
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Events
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17/02/2023
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Towards fairer markets in Africa and the EU - Fostering international partnerships in competition policy
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The first Africa-EU high-level conference Towards fairer markets in Africa and the EU - Fostering international partnerships in competition policy is now open for registrations.
The conference will take place on February 17th, as conclusion of the second Africa-EU Competition Week, which will take place from 13 to 16 February at the College of Europe in Bruges, Belgium. It will provide a platform to discuss major developments and challenges in competition policy in Africa and the EU. Leading academics, practitioners as well as officials from the EU, EU Member States and more than 25 African regional and national authorities will take part in the Conference.
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27/02/2023
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The DMA and interoperability between messaging services
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Workshop of 27 February 2023 on “The DMA and interoperability between messaging services” to discuss how to ensure effective compliance with the Digital Markets Act.
This workshop will address issues such as end-to-end encryption, security or the identification of users across different messaging services
The Commission believes it important for all stakeholders to provide their input and views on various implementation questions, whilst fully respecting the letter and the spirit of the Digital Markets Act.
The view of third parties, including but not exclusively of those who are potential beneficiaries of the Digital Markets Act, will be an important input in ensuring practicable, transparent, and effective compliance solutions.
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06/03/2023
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The DMA and app store related provisions
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Workshop of 6 March 2023 on“The DMA and app store related provisions” to discuss how to ensure effective compliance with the Digital Markets Act.
This workshop will address issues such as alternative in-app payment systems, steering and sideloading.
The view of third parties, including but not exclusively of those who are potential beneficiaries of the Digital Markets Act, will be an important input in ensuring practicable, transparent, and effective compliance solutions.
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Publications
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COMP papers nominated for Antitrust Writing Awards 2023
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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 2023.
Three of the papers were nominated for the “Soft Law” section:
- Antitrust category: Joint statement by the European Competition Network (ECN) on the application of competition law in the context of the war in Ukraine;
- Concerted Practices category: Guidelines on the application of Union competition law to collective agreements regarding the working conditions of solo self-employed persons 2022/C 374/02;
- Cross-Border Issues category: Guidelines on State aid for climate, environmental protection and energy 2022.
Moreover, two academic articles were also nominated:
- Private enforcement category: The unsung harmony of Sumal and the Akzo line of case law, by Niklas Brueggemann;
- Cross-Border Issues category: The uneven playing field: How to deal with foreign subsidies when assessing mergers?, by Thibault Sire.
Last, but not least, one business article:
- Digital category: Mergers in Big Tech: An overview of EU and national case law, by Alessandro Massolo.
The goal of the awards is to shine a light on competition scholarship, contribute to competition advocacy and to discover the best antitrust content published over the last year.
Winners will be announced at the Antitrust Writing Awards Ceremony, which will this year take place on Tuesday, March 28, 2023, on the eve of the ABA Antitrust Spring Meeting, in Washington, D.C.
You can vote for your favorite papers until 14th March 2023.
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Public consultations
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10/01/2023 - 24/04/2023
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Sustainability agreements in agriculture – consultation on draft guidelines on antitrust exclusion
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The European Commission invites all interested parties to comment on its draft proposal for Guidelines on how to design sustainability agreements in the field of agriculture using the novel exclusion from EU competition rules introduced during the recent reform of the common agricultural policy. The draft Guidelines aim at clarifying how operators active in the agri-food sector can design joint sustainability initiatives in line with Article 210a.
See also the Commission's press release.
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Open calls for tender
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13/01/2023 - 24/02/2023
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Survey of Practitioners on the Deterrent Effects of EU Competition Enforcement
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A correct measurement of the deterrent effects EU competition enforcement is of crucial importance for determining the overall impact of competition policy enforcement, as such indirect effects largely outweigh the direct effect of competition policy interventions. The most commonly used method to estimate deterrent effects relies on surveys, which interrogate companies and their legal advisors about the effects of competition policy interventions on company behaviour. The aim of the present study is to provide an update of the existing survey-based evidence as regards the scale of the deterrent effects of EU competition policy enforcement.
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New legislation
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