Competition weekly news summary
5 February 2016

Conferences/Speeches

  • Speech by Commissioner Vestager 'Setting priorities in antitrust'
    GCLC, Brussels
    1 February 2016
    "We should reward companies that admit to having broken the law, especially when they come up with remedies to make the markets more competitive, or companies that provide evidence voluntarily. Because the faster we can wrap up a case and restore competition to the market, the less consumers will suffer. And to get that result, I think it's worth cutting the fines we impose."
    Read full speech >
  • Speech by Carles Esteva Mosso 'The Contribution of Merger Control to the Definition of Harm to Competition '
    GCLC, Brussels
    1 February 2016
    "Merger control and antitrust enforcement address different forms of negative effects on competition, but they ultimately serve the same purpose: protecting competition and consumer welfare. Hence it is only natural that both instruments are based on many common concepts and methodological tools and that this convergence tends to increase over time. A continued and enhanced dialogue between competition law enforcers and practitioners across instruments is useful to better understand the common concepts and objectives of both instruments, thereby strengthening the foundation of our antitrust and merger control work."
    Read full speech >

Publications

  • Ex-post evaluation of the impact of restructuring aid decisions on the viability of aided (non-financial) firms
    5 February 2016
    This study has the overall objective of evaluating the EC’s ex-ante assessment of restructuring plans submitted by the Member States.
    Read Study>

Mergers

  • Commission clears acquisition of mobile network operator BASE by Liberty Global, subject to conditions
    4 February 2016
    Following an in-depth investigation, the European Commission has approved under the EU Merger Regulation the acquisition of BASE, a Belgian mobile network operator, by Liberty Global. The approval is conditional upon the implementation of commitments to ensure effective competition in the Belgian retail mobile market.
    Read more >
  • Commission clears acquisition of SanDisk by Western Digital
    4 February 2016
    The European Commission has approved under the EU Merger Regulation the proposed acquisition of data storage manufacturer SanDisk by rival Western Digital, both of the US, after concluding the takeover would not adversely affect competition in Europe. Western Digital and SanDisk both provide computer storage solutions, such as hard disk drives or solid state drives based on flash memory, for the consumer electronics and enterprise markets.
    Read more >

Court

  • Case T-620/11 GFKL Financial Services vs Commission,
    Case T-287/11 Heitkamp BauHolding vs Commission
    4
    February 2016
    The EU General Court ruled on actions for annulment of a Commission decision of 2011 finding a provision of the German corporate tax law known as "Sanierungsklausel" (or reorganisation clause), to be incompatible with EU state aid rules. Several companies brought actions for annulment against the decision. The General Court has now dismissed two of these actions, brought by Heitkamp Holding and GFKL. The Court fully upheld the Commission's findings and confirmed in particular that the Sanierungsklausel, a measure which excludes healthy companies from the benefit of certain tax advantages granted to ailing companies, procured the latter a selective advantage over their competitors, in breach of EU state aid rules.
    See Court of Justice case page GFKL (FR)>
    See Court of Justice case page Heitkamp (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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