유럽투자 InvestEurope.kr

The number of patent settlements in the pharmaceutical sector that are potentially problematic under the European Union’s antitrust rules fell to 10% of total patent settlements in the sector in the period July 2008 to December 2009 compared with 22% in the period covered in last year’s inquiry into the pharmaceutical sector (January 2000-June 2008).

The European Commission has adopted new competition rules for agreements between vehicle manufacturers and their authorised dealers, repairers and spare parts distributors. The new rules will increase competition in the market for repair and maintenance by improving access to technical information needed for the repairs and by making it easier to use alternative spare parts. [...]

The European Commission has adopted a new Regulation that block exempts certain types of agreements in the insurance sector from the EU’s general prohibition of practices restrictive of competition. The new Block Exemption Regulation (BER), which will come into force on the 1st of April, renews two of the four categories of agreements currently exempted, [...]

European Commissioner for Competition Neelie Kroes welcomes the strong cross-party support received in today’s resolution by the European Parliament on the Commission’s White Paper on damages: an initiative designed to improve the ways in which victims of competition breaches can claim compensation for the harm they suffered. Due to the ineffectiveness of the legal rules [...]

The European Commission has launched a public consultation on the functioning of the current regime for the assessment of horizontal cooperation agreements under EU antitrust rules, in particular the Specialisation and Research & Development Block Exemption Regulations and the Horizontal Guidelines. The purpose of the review is to evaluate how these rules have worked in [...]

The European Commission has published guidance on its enforcement priorities in applying EC Treaty rules on abuse of a dominant market position (Article 82) to abusive exclusionary conduct by dominant undertakings. Such conduct aims to exclude actual competitors from expanding or would-be competitors from entering a market, thereby potentially depriving customers of more choice, more [...]

The European Commission has published its preliminary report on the competition inquiry into the pharmaceutical sector, which finds that competition in this industry does not work as well as it should. According to the preliminary findings there is evidence that originator companies have engaged in practices with the objective of delaying or blocking market entry [...]

The European Commission has launched a public consultation on the functioning of the Council Regulation (1/2003) that sets out the rules for the Commission’s enforcement of EC Treaty antitrust rules.This Regulation, which took effect on 1 May 2004, also entrusts national competition authorities and courts with the role of applying the EU antitrust rules, meaning [...]

The European Commission has adopted Guidelines on the application to maritime transport services of EC Treaty rules on restrictive business practices (Article 81). As from October 2008, liner companies will have to assess themselves whether their business practices comply with the competition rules.

The European Commission has introduced a settlement procedure for cartels which will allow the Commission to settle cartel cases through a simplified procedure. Under this procedure, parties, having seen the evidence in the Commission file, choose to acknowledge their involvement in the cartel and their liability for it.