Competition weekly news summary
19 February 2016

Antitrust

  • Commission seeks feedback on commitments offered by container liner shipping companies
    16 February 2016
    The European Commission is inviting comments from interested parties on commitments offered by fifteen container liner shipping companies to address concerns relating to concerted practices.
    Read more >

Mergers

  • Commission approves acquisition of Procter & Gamble's beauty products businesses by Coty
    16 February 2016
    The European Commission has approved under the EU Merger Regulation the acquisition of Procter & Gamble's beauty products businesses by Coty. The Commission concluded that strong independent players would remain active in all the concerned markets.
    Read more >

State aid

  • Latest Scoreboard shows how State Aid Modernisation has cut red tape for unproblematic aid
    17 February 2016
    The European Commission has updated its State Aid Scoreboard, which shows that in 2014 Member States (EU28) spent €101.2 billion, i.e. 0.72% of GDP, on state aid to manufacturing services, agriculture and fisheries. This is an increase of around €33 billion from 2013, reflecting Member States' increased awareness, following adoption of the 2014 Energy and Environmental Aid Guidelines, that renewable energy support involves state aid. The Member States also made extensive use of the possibilities offered by the 2014 modernisation of State aid rules, in particular the new General Block Exemption Regulation (GBER). There was a significant increase in unproblematic aid measures that could be granted without prior Commission scrutiny – over nine out of ten state aid measures were registered under GBER. This reduced administrative red tape, giving Member States more responsibility for ensuring compliance with the rules and allowing the Commission to focus its attention on more distortive aid. The Scoreboard shows for the first time national spending on individual state aid schemes, as well as data on public support for renewable energy sources and on Structural Fund expenditure, where it was used to co-finance state aid measures. This increases transparency on public spending and promotes better aid. As of 1 July 2016, Member States will also be required to publish, for each state aid award above €500,000, the identity of the beneficiary, the amount and objective of the aid and the legal basis. This information will be available through the "Transparency Award Module" accessible on the Commission and Member State websites.
    See the State Aid Scoreboard>

Publications

  • Study: Geographic Market Definition in European Commission Merger Control
    16 February 2016
    On the Commission’s request, Professors Bruce Lyons and Amelia Fletcher from the University of East Anglia have prepared an independent economic report on the topic of "Geographic Market Definition in European Commission Merger Control".
    Download the study >

Court

  • Case C-446/14P Germany vs. European Commission - State aid to Zweckverband Tierkörperbeseitigung (Dead Animals Disposal)
    18 February 2016
    The Commission welcomes the judgment of the Court of Justice which fully upholds the judgment of the General Court of 16 July 2014 (T-295/12) that had confirmed in its entirety a Commission Decision of April 2012. This Commission decision had found that financial contributions to Zweckverband Tierkörperbeseitigung, a German public corporation for the disposal of animal carcasses, by its members (several municipalities) had given the corporation an undue economic advantage over its competitors, in breach of EU State aid rules.
    See Court of Justice case page (DE/FR)>



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Published by the Competition Directorate General of the European Commission. The content of this publication does not necessarily reflect the official position of the European Commission. Neither the Commission nor any person acting on its behalf is responsible for the use which might be made of the above information.

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