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Ursula von der Leyen, the new president of the European Commission, has called for ‘new proposals to ensure Europe is more resilient to extraterritorial sanctions…
Continue Reading EU Sanctions: European Commission President Pushes for Greater Resilience, Proper Enforcement

The European Commission (“Commission”) has today published a significant package of measures designed to eliminate barriers to cross-border e-commerce in the European Union…
Continue Reading STOP PRESS: E-commerce in Europe – significant regulatory changes proposed – impact on companies conducting online business in the EU

Written by Lisa Navarro

On 28 November 2012 the UK’s Home Office launched a consultation regarding proposals to deliver the Government’s policies aimed at cutting alcohol fuelled crime and anti-social behaviour. Rather than focus on the irresponsible drinkers, however, the proposals are firmly targeted at how, when, and for what price alcohol can, and should be, sold.

In particular, the consultation seeks views on the following proposals:

  • a ban on multi-buy promotions (e.g. buy-one-get-one-free) in shops and off-licences;
  • a review of the mandatory licensing conditions, to ensure that they are sufficiently targeting problems such as irresponsible promotions in pubs and clubs;
  • health as a new alcohol licensing objective for cumulative impacts so that licensing authorities can consider alcohol-related health harms when managing the problems relating to the number of premises in their area;
  • cutting red tape for responsible businesses to reduce the burden of regulation while maintaining the integrity of the licensing system; and
  • minimum unit pricing, with a recommended minimum price of 45 pence per alcoholic unit.…
    Continue Reading Price Fixing in the UK Booze Market — the Government’s Solution to Binge Drinking

Written by Simon Harms

On 14 December 2010, the European Commission(the “Commission“) adopted a new suite of rules governing co-operation between actual or potential competitors, consisting of (i) guidelines on the applicability of EU competition law to horizontal co-operation agreements (the “Guidelines”) and (ii) two new block exemption regulations covering: (1) specialisation and joint production agreements; and (2) research and development agreements (the “R&D BER”).

The Guidelines and block exemption regulations replace existing rules which had been in place for a decade and cover a large number of different types of horizontal co-operation agreements. In an effort to break down the myriad new rules to manageable proportions and in a user-friendly style, GTM has prepared a series of alerts which have examined the rules by types of agreement. This, the final alert in the series, focuses on research and development agreements.1  …
Continue Reading EU competition: focus on R&D agreements

Written by Simon Harms

On 14 December 2010, the European Commission (the “Commission”) adopted a new suite of rules governing co-operation between actual or potential competitors, consisting of (i) guidelines on the applicability of EU competition law to horizontal co-operation agreements (the “Guidelines”) and (ii) two new block exemption regulations covering: (1) R&D agreements; and (2) specialisation and joint production agreements.

The Guidelines and block exemption regulations replaced existing rules which had been in place for a decade and cover a large variety of different types of horizontal co-operation agreements. In an effort to break down the myriad new rules to manageable proportions and in a user-friendly style, GTM has prepared a series of alerts which, in turn, examine the implications for the  various categories of agreement. This alert focuses on standardisation agreements.1  …
Continue Reading EU competition: industry standards and antitrust compliance