The European Commission has approved Liberty House Group as a suitable purchaser of several ArcelorMittal steel plants, sold under commitments made by ArcelorMittal in order to buy Ilva. The Commission has also approved the transaction itself under EU merger rules. In May 2018, the Commission approved the acquisition of Ilva by ArcelorMittal, subject to conditions. […]
The European Commission has approved under EU State aid rules (1) a Polish scheme to support high-efficiency cogeneration and (2) reduced surcharges to finance the scheme for energy-intensive users. It also (3) opened an investigation into reduced surcharges to finance Poland’s capacity mechanism. Commissioner Margrethe Vestager, in charge of competition policy, said, “The Polish support […]
The European Commission and EU Member States have negotiated a change to the terms of providing services by Facebook. There was doubt about the lack of clear information about how Facebook uses personal data of its users, and the rules concerning the company’s liability. On Thursday, April 11, the European Commission announced the effect of […]
Britain’s Competition Markets Authority (CMA) announced on Monday, April 8, it had cleared German utility RWE’s purchase of rival E.ON’s renewables business and nuclear electricity generation assets, reported Reuters. Under the deal, RWE will take a 16.7% minority stake in E.ON. “The CMA has decided, on the information currently available to it, not to refer […]
Two years after the EU began investigating whether Valve uses regional pricing and geo-blocking practices in its Steam store, the European Commission has formally charged the distributor and five game publishers. The Commission released its “preliminary view” thatValve, Bandai Namco, Capcom, Focus Home, Koch Media and ZeniMax prevented consumers from purchasing videogames cross-border from some Member […]
The European Commission has formally accused BMW, VW, and Daimler of colluding to impede the rollout of emissions limiting technology. These companies—whose car brands include Mercedes, Audi, Volkswagen, Porsche, and BMW—are said to have limited and delayed the use of tech that would have reduced the emissions of diesel and petrol cars. Regulators accused the […]
German carmaker Daimler has complained to EU antitrust regulators about Nokia patents essential to car communications, reported Reuters. Daimler confirmed that it had lodged a complaint with the European Commission against Nokia. “We want clarification on how essential patents for telecommunications standards are to be licensed in the automotive industry,” the car maker said in […]
Osborne Clarke announced the appointment of new partner, Steven Verschuur who will join the partnership on April 1, in Belgium. An expert in EU law with a focus on state aid, competition, merger control, and trade, Verschuur brings extensive experience in proceedings and investigations before the European Commission and the national competition authorities of Belgium […]
The European Commission has accepted commitments offered by top Hollywood film studios and Sky UK on their pay TV services that will allow European Union consumers to access films via satellite or online when they are outside Britain and Ireland, reported the Financial Times. Thursday’s agreement smashes the country-by-country licensing regime that has dominated the sales of […]
The European Commission has opened an in-depth investigation to assess whether Danish and Swedish public support for the Øresund fixed rail-road link is in line with EU State aid rules. This follows the EU General Court’s annulment of a previous Commission decision approving the support. Commissioner Margrethe Vestager, in charge of competition policy, said, “The […]