EU Law, competition and regulation

Seminar - Stibbe is organising a seminar in Amsterdam on 29 November 2019 concerning recent developments in the software market, potential new opportunities offering the right to respond to powerful suppliers, and the question of how these developing resources can be used effectively. 

Short Reads - The European Court of Justice recently ruled that the European Commission does not have to take additional precautionary measures to respect the right of legal professional privilege when conducting a new dawn raid at the same company. Companies are well-advised to mark clearly all communications covered by legal privilege as 'privileged and confidential' and to keep all privileged communication separate from other communication.

Inside Stibbe - Legal Women, the platform for female lawyers, has nominated Astrid Helstone and Roos Elemans for Legal Woman of the Year and Upcoming Talent 2019 respectively.

Short Reads - The General Court annulled the EUR 33.6 million fine imposed on banking group HSBC for its participation in the euro interest rates derivatives cartel. Full annulment was granted based on the Commission's failure to provide sufficiently detailed reasoning for the first step of the fine calculation, establishing the value of sales. As the value of sales could not be established in a straightforward way, the Commission used a proxy. When doing so, the Commission needs to properly explain its reasoning to allow the companies fined to understand how it arrived at the proxy. 

Articles - The European Commission recently issued guidance on the participation of third country bidders in public procurement. It clarified bids may be excluded, but remains silent on whether they may be accepted and under which conditions. The Commission is of the opinion that contracting authorities or entities can exclude bids if no access is secured. However, it does not discuss if and under which conditions contracting authorities or entities can allow foreign bids if no access is secured.

Short Reads - Benelux competition authorities have published a joint memorandum on how best to keep up with challenges in fast-moving digital markets. As well as calling on the European Commission to issue an economic study on digital mergers, the memorandum calls for an ex ante intervention tool to fill the gap between interim measures and ex post enforcement. This tool would pre-emptively impose behavioural remedies on digital gatekeepers without first having to establish an actual competition law infringement.

Short Reads - Overheden moeten schaarse subsidies eerlijk verdelen. Alle geïnteresseerden moeten een gelijke kans krijgen om mee te dingen naar dergelijke subsidies. Dit volgt uit het transparantiebeginsel. In dit blogbericht gaan wij in op de verdeling van schaarse subsidies en bespreken wij welke vragen de komende periode nog beantwoord moeten worden.

Short Reads - The Dutch Authority for Consumers and Markets (ACM) needs to cough up a total of EUR 120,000 in moral damages to three real estate traders. The Dutch Trade and Industry Appeal Tribunal (CBb) agreed with the real estate traders that the annulment of the ACM's cartel decisions against them was insufficient compensation for the harm they suffered as a result of the length of the procedure and the press coverage of their cases.