The ever more bumpy road towards lenient treatment

Short Reads - On 22 August 2020, the ban on abuse of economic dependence was implemented in Belgium (Article IV.2/1 of the Code of Economic Law). Now that almost a year has passed and the first judgments have been rendered, we assess what first lessons can be drawn from these judgments. The rulings show that the ban is regularly relied upon in court and has lowered the hurdle for plaintiffs to make their case.

Articles - Annotatie bij het ‘Varkens in Nood’-arrest van het Hof van Justitie van de Europese Unie. Schending Verdrag van Aarhus. EU-recht. Milieubesluitvorming. Personenfuik. Onderdelenfuik. Ontvankelijkheid beroep. Procesrecht. Inspraak. Toegang tot rechter. Uniforme openbare voorbereidingsprocedure.  

Short Reads - Companies involved in M&A deals falling below the EU and national notification thresholds need to think twice about their deal’s potential impact on competition from now on.

Short Reads - Only dominant companies with a “genuinely tight grip” on the market can be forced to grant rivals access to their infrastructure. According to the ECJ’s rulings in Slovak Telekom and Deutsche Telekom, it is only in this scenario that the question of indispensability of the access for rivals comes into play. In the assessment of practices other than access refusal, indispensability may be indicative of a potential abuse of a dominant position, but is not a required condition.