On June 29, 2023, the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) delivered a preliminary ruling in the Super Bock Bebidas vs. Autoridade da Concorrência case (C-211/22) on the questions referred by the Tribunal da Relaçao de Lisboa (Lisbon Court of Appeal). To some extent, the recent judgement is not particularly noteworthy or innovative, as it mainly applies well-established EU competition law principles prevalent through existing case law. However, the Super Bock case marks a significant step forward by introducing these principles for the first time in the context of vertical price-fixing agreements.
FTC Releases Proposed Changes to Premerger Notification Form and Process
The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has proposed, for comment, significant changes to the information and documents to be submitted with premerger filings—even in transactions that do not raise significant antitrust issues. The changes proposed may not take effect and may be different when finalized. But if promulgated as proposed, every Hart-Scott-Rodino (HSR) filing will be more difficult and time-consuming, and transactions that might raise even marginal antitrust issues will require significant up-front work.
EU Competition Law: New Horizontal Block Exemption Regulations and Horizontal Guidelines
The European Commission recently adopted and published the revised Research and Development Block Exemption Regulation and Specialisation Block Exemption Regulation, together referred to as the Horizontal Block Exemption Regulations (HBERs), accompanied by the revised Horizontal Guidelines (HGLs). The adoption of the new HBERs and HGLs comes after the conduct of a similar review process and the adoption of the Vertical Block Exemption Regulation and Vertical Guidelines in May 2022. This revised horizontal package seeks to provide businesses with up-to-date guidance to help them self-assess the compatibility of their horizontal cooperation agreements with EU competition law.
The Potential Benefits of New EU Merger Control Rules
The European Commission recently adopted and published a package to simplify the procedures for reviewing concentrations under the EU Merger Regulation. The goal of the package is to simplify merger review procedures, with a targeted 25% reduction on reporting requirements.
In this Law360 article, McDermott Partners Jacques Buhart, Stéphane Dionnet and Frédéric Pradelles examine the new regulations and analyze their impact on businesses and advisers.
US Federal Agencies Commit to Regulatory Enforcement of AI Systems
A recent announcement by multiple federal agencies has highlighted their intention to enforce their separate regulations against developers, deployers and users of AI systems. Federal Trade Commission (FTC) Chair Lina Khan and officials from the US Department of Justice (DOJ), the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) and the US Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) each reinforced their worries about automated systems, citing civil rights, fair competition, consumer protection and equal opportunity concerns. Their serious language, joint public commitment and previous enforcement actions in this area make this statement no simple theater.
