Dirk de Graeff

Short Reads - On 27 June 2017, the European Commission announced its decision to fine Google EUR 2.42 billion for abusing its dominant position by illegally favouring its own comparison shopping service in its search results. The fine follows a seven-year investigation and unsuccessful commitment negotiations and is the largest ever imposed on a single company by the Commission. Failure to remedy the allegedly anti-competitive conduct within 90 days could lead to additional fines of up to 5% of Google's average daily worldwide turnover for each day of non-compliance.

Short Reads - Competition Law Newsletter of February 2017

Short Reads - On 4 May 2017, the European Commission announced its decision to make the commitments offered by Amazon legally binding. Under these commitments, Amazon (the largest distributor of e-books in Europe) will no longer enforce or introduce a variety of "most favoured nation" (MFN) clauses in its distribution agreements with e-book publishers in Europe.

Articles - In Case M.7872 – Novartis/GlaxoSmithKline (ofatumumab autoimmune indications), the European Commission claimed jurisdiction under the merger control rules over a transaction by virtue of which a yet to be fully developed biological drug was transferred to a purchaser. In applying the relevant jurisdictional test, the Commission made a series of observations which have far-reaching implications.