Tag: Competition policy

Hungarian flag-carrier Malév ceased operating early today (3 February), ending 66 years of almost continuous service, after its planes were held overseas for unpaid debts. Last month the Commission ordered Hungary to recover multi-million state aid to the national carrier.

Google faces a total of nine antitrust complaints which EU regulators are now investigating, two sources said yesterday (2 August), as rivals ramped up the pressure on the world No. 1 search engine.

Competition policy is essential for sustainable growth and a pillar of economic recovery, while those who want to relax competition during the economic downturn or protect national markets and support inefficient national businesses are "wrong", said Joaquín Almunia, European Commissioner for Competition, at a European Policy Centre (EPC) briefing on 19 April. Extraordinary public support measures were introduced to help the EU through the crisis, but these are now gradually being reduced and markets will start to function normally again, writes the EPC in its report of the event.

The EU's competition policy is preventing the creation of strong European companies and needs to be more flexible, French President Nicolas Sarkozy said on Thursday.

In a complete U-turn, the European Commission has given its approval to Oracle's acquisition of Sun Microsystems. Sources close to the negotiation of the controversial deal say Neelie Kroes, the EU's competition commissioner, bowed to political pressure from the US to approve the move.

The commissioner-designate for competition, Joaquin Almunia, will not ease the EU's stance towards banks which received state aid during the financial crisis. Credit institutions will have to reimburse the aid by the end of 2010 and cannot use this financial support to increase bonuses, Almunia made clear during his hearing in front of the European Parliament.

The EU executive is promising to make its complex antitrust procedures more transparent in a move designed to make competition cases more predictable for businesses.

Oracle offered the EU's antitrust regulator a set of new terms over the weekend intended to curry favour for its acquisition of Sun Microsystems. But sources close to the deal say Oracle's "public remedies" are unlikely to satisfy the EU's original objections to the deal.

Oracle's case for buying Sun Microsystems has failed to convince the European Commission, which issued a statement of objections to the deal on Sunday (15 November).

An EU crackdown on banks too big to fail appears to have begun with ING having to sell its insurance and investment management business, as demanded by the European Commission.

EU competition regulators will begin scrutinising bonuses at state-aided banks, EU Competition Commissioner Neelie Kroes said on Friday (11 September).

The European Commission yesterday (20 April) launched two antitrust investigations against certain members of the Star and Oneworld airline alliances amid concerns that their agreements on transatlantic routes may breach EU rules.

The European Commission said yesterday (11 March) that it raided the premises of French electricity giant EDF on March 10 on suspicion of abusing its dominant market position.

The European Commission has received over forty submissions to the consultation process launched in the wake of its inquiry into the pharmaceutical sector. The contributions will be posted online within weeks, the EU executive has confirmed.

Sasol, Total, ExxonMobil and six others were fined €676 million yesterday (1 October) for participating in a cartel that for 13 years fixed prices of paraffin wax, a petrochemical product widely used for consumer goods like paper cups, candles and tyres. 

The planned merger between Google and the leading provider of ad-serving tools, DoubleClick, will not involve the creation of a single database with consumer-related information, said Google's Privacy Counsel, Peter Fleischer, in a move aimed to allay growing privacy concerns in Europe.

The proposed acquisition of online advertising company DoubleClick by Google, the Internet search giant, raises a host of privacy concerns that make the merger more than a mere competition case, legal experts have said.

Seen by some as a political victory for the European Commission and by others as a barrier to innovation, the outcome of the Microsoft case has spread the competition debate beyond judicial and competition policy specialist circles, writes Claire Vanini in a paper for the Robert Schuman Foundation.

Visa has said that it will appeal a fine imposed by the EU for refusing to admit Morgan Stanley to its payment system in Britain. The Commission argued that the move was "unjustified and discriminatory". EU anti-trust chief Neelie Kroes said that the decision would give a "clear signal" that the Commission will take a tough line to ensure competition in the payments sector.

Competition Commissioner Neelie Kroes is to hold a high-level visit to China, following the adoption of its first legal competition policy framework, which EU businesses fear could block foreign takeovers in China for 'national security' reasons. Meanwhile, Health Commissioner Markos Kyprianou is to sound out the grounds for better co-operation on food and health issues.

The Commission has announced the opening of anti-trust procedures against two leading energy companies, saying that it suspects Italy's Eni and Germany's RWE of illegally excluding competitors from the gas-supply market.

The Commission has begun legal proceedings against a German telecom law granting Deutsche Telekom AG a monopoly on a high-speed internet network.

On 31 January 2007, the Commission is to present a critical report on the European payment-card market, which may trigger individual anti-trust investigations.

Although the internal market is at the core of the EU and although, especially for Germany, the advantages are undeniable, the internal market is often criticised. Dr Joachim Wuermeling, state secretary at the German Federal Ministry for Economics and Technology, highlights the achievements, dangers and current and future challenges.