On 1 November 2024, the Swedish Competition Authority has started applying its statement regarding free access to procurement documents. This means that contracting authorities are now, according to the Swedish Competition Authority, expected to make standard contracts such as AB04 and ABT06 available free of charge to tenderers in all public procurement processes.
Mexico mandates reporting of telecoms infrastructure
Telecommunications concessions and authorization holders and other companies that own or use telecommunications or broadcasting infrastructure must provide certain information to the Federal Telecommunications Institute through the National Information and Infrastructure System (Sistema Nacional de Información e Infraestructura (SNII)). The obligation to report such information is effective as of January 2025. The SNII is a database that will contain information on active infrastructure and means of transmission, passive infrastructure, rights of way and public and private sites used by operators providing telecommunications or broadcasting services.
Australia: Healthcare and competition update – ACCC to focus on pathology and oncology-radiology sectors in new merger regime
Proposed changes to Australia’s merger control regime were introduced to Parliament last month following extensive public consultation.
As a key element of the reforms, the new legislation will enable the ACCC to request that the Treasurer designate certain sectors of the economy where all mergers, acquisitions or other transactions would require approval from the ACCC, regardless of transaction size.
Comments made by the ACCC and the Treasury over the course of the reform consultation process indicate that the ACCC will use its increased powers under the new regime to examine transactions in the pathology and oncology-radiology sectors.
United Kingdom: Government publishes guidance on Failure to Prevent Fraud Offence
The Home Office published their long-awaited guidance on the new failure to prevent fraud offence on 6 November 2024. The FTPF Offence, introduced by the Economic Crime and Corporate Transparency Act 2023, allows for large organizations to be held criminally liable where their employees, agents, subsidiaries, or other “associated persons” commit a base fraud offence intending to benefit the organization or its clients, and it is determined the organization failed to implement “reasonable fraud prevention procedures”. All large, incorporated bodies and partnerships are in scope of the FTPF Offence, and it applies both to UK-based organizations and organizations based abroad with a UK nexus. The Government also announced that the FTPF Offence will come into force on 1 September 2025.