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Dec 17, 2024 | 
concurrences.com | Van Bael |Van Hove |Jean-François Bellis |Valérie Lefever
On 18 December 2024, the Belgian Competition Authority (BCA) published what it calls a “short guide for tech challengers” (the Guide) which discusses the Digital Markets Act (DMA) and the benefits which the DMA is intended to bring to the digital sector in terms of innovation and competition by reducing entry and expansion barriers and improving fairness in the dealings of third parties with specific gatekeepers, the largest digital platforms in Europe (see, English version attached). These w...
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Sep 30, 2024 | 
concurrences.com | Van Bael |Van Hove |Jean-François Bellis |Peter L'Ecluse
Article précédent Article suivant Partager sur | On 30 September 2024, the Federal Public Service Economy published its first annual report (the Report ) on the screening of foreign direct investments ( FDI ) and the operations of the Belgian Interfederal Screening Committee (the ISC ).
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Sep 17, 2024 | 
concurrences.com | Van Bael |Daniel Rodríguez Asensio |Van Hove |Niharika Parshurampuria
On 18 September 2024, the General Court delivered a judgement in Case-671/19 Qualcomm v Commission, upholding the Commission’s decision to impose a fine on Qualcomm for abuse of a dominant position in the UMTScompliant baseband chipset market in violation of Article 102 TFEU. The Court did, however, recalculate the fine amount, on account of the Commission having departed, without justification, from its fining guidelines. Background In June 2009, Icera, a competitor, lodged a complaint aga...
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Sep 4, 2024 | 
concurrences.com | Van Bael |Van Hove |Jean-François Bellis |Peter L'Ecluse
The European Commission (the Commission ) published on 5 September 2024 a report on interim measures used by national competition authorities ( NCAs ) (see, attachment – the IM Report ). When Directive 2019/1 to make NCAs more effective competition law enforcers (the ECN+ Directive ) became law, the Commission promised to come up with an analysis of means to simplify the adoption of interim measures by NCAs. The resulting IM Report discusses the impact of the ECN+ Directive on the power of...
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Aug 20, 2024 | 
concurrences.com | Van Bael |Van Hove |Jean-François Bellis |Peter L'Ecluse
On 21 August 2024, the Belgian Competition Authority ( BCA ) made public a cooperation agreement with the federal Ombudsman to facilitate and handle whistleblower reports of competition law infringements (see, attached press release in three language versions and cooperation agreement in Dutch and French). Like many other competition authorities, the BCA has for some time encouraged individuals with knowledge of possible violations of competition law to step forward and detail these violations.
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Jul 26, 2024 | 
zenodo.org | Stefan Thor |Van Hove
This data set accompanies Fenner et al. (2024) and contains the data (and references to data sources) of the plots and tables therein. Data are organized by Figure and Table in the article, each located in a separate (zip-)folder. See README.pdf for additional information and data descriptions. Detailed data processing details are given in the Appendices of the article. RAW measurement data are accessible via the Zenodo “urbisphere” community.
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Jul 25, 2024 | 
concurrences.com | Van Bael |Van Hove |Jean-François Bellis |Peter L'Ecluse
The Belgian Competition Authority ( BCA ) announced on 26 July 2024 the opening of an investigation into an agreement on the rolling out of fibre telecommunications networks in Flanders (see, attached BCA press release).
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Jul 7, 2024 | 
concurrences.com | Van Bael |Van Hove |Jean-François Bellis |Peter L'Ecluse
Following close on the heels of a settlement decision fining procurement practices in the private security sector (see, VBB Belgian Antitrust Watch of 4 July 2024), the Belgian Competition Authority ( BCA ) has now concluded another settlement agreement with firms found guilty of bid rigging practices in the fire protection business (see, attached press release of 8 July 2024). In keeping with its enforcement priorities for 2024 (here and here), the BCA went after Ansul and Somati Fie (both o...
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Jul 7, 2024 | 
concurrences.com | Van Bael |Van Hove |Jean-François Bellis |Peter L'Ecluse
Previous article Next article Share on | Following close on the heels of a settlement decision fining procurement practices in the private security sector (see, VBB Belgian Antitrust Watch of 4 July 2024 and here), the BCA went after Ansul and Somati Fie (both owned by London Security plc) as well as Sicli.
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Jun 23, 2024 | 
concurrences.com | Van Bael |Van Hove |Jean-François Bellis |Peter L'Ecluse
On 24 June 2024, the Belgian Competition Authority ( BCA ) launched a public consultation regarding the draft brochure entitled “The Digital Markets Act – a short guide for tech challengers” (the Draft Brochure ). The Draft Brochure is manifestly intended for an audience much wider than Belgium: the aim is to “raise awareness among tech entrepreneurs and digital business users about the opportunities opened up by the Digital Markets Act (DMA) to bring innovation to digital markets in Europe”...
