Antitrust / Competition

On June 9 2017, the 9th amendment to the German Competition Act (ARC) finally comes into force. The main reason behind this substantial change of German competition law was the implementation of the EU directive 2014/104/EU on Antitrust Damages Actions.

The German Parliament approved the draft of a new Federal Data Protection Act in order to align the German data protection law with the requirements of the European General Data Protection Regulation and to make use of the opening clauses of the GDPR.

We have recorded interviews with competiton law experts at a conference organized by Concurrences Review in partnership with Baker McKenzie. Listen to what our experts have to say about the latest developments in the competition and antitrust arena.

On 27 April 2017, Hong Kong’s High Court rejected allegations by travel agency, Loyal Profit International Development that certain directives issued by the Travel Industry Council (TIC) were anti-competitive, and refused to rule on alleged violations of competition law.

Dawn raids are a big challenge, and getting it wrong can mean huge fines. Having good policies and procedures is important. But in the midst of a raid, you need to understand the practical issues that really matter. Based on our recent experience, we summarized are five crucial things you need to be aware of.

On 25 April 2017, the Kyiv office of Baker McKenzie held a webinar on implementing efficient compliance programs in Ukraine for multinational companies and featured an update on Ukrainian sanctions and trade restrictions, including trade restrictions introduced in relation to Russia and the Crimea, as well as an update on Occupied Territories in the East of Ukraine.

A draft of the new Competition Law (Draft Law) has been recently posted on the Government Portal for public review and commentary. The finalized Draft Law is expected to be submitted to the National Assembly in October 2017 and adopted in May 2018.

Baker McKenzie has launched a global version of its Dawn Raid App, a mobile application that, across 44 countries, provides clients experiencing a raid with real-time step-by-step guidance on their rights and obligations.

For several years now, a leniency model exists in Macedonia and it is shaped in line with the EU leniency model. Nevertheless, the Macedonian Competition Commission decided to refine the existing rules.

On 16 March, the EU Commission launched a new tool which shall make it easier for individuals to alert the Commission about secret cartels and other antitrust violations while maintaining their anonymity.