IN THE NEWS

The European Commission has announced that its officials and their counterparts from relevant national competition authorities have conducted unannounced inspections at the premises of several European manufacturers of paper envelopes in France, Denmark, Spain and Sweden following a suspected breach of Article 101 TFEU. To read the press release, click here.

The European Commission has announced that, following changes by Apple to its policies, it intends to close two preliminary investigations into whether certain of Apple's iPhone policies breached the EU competition rules. To read the press release, click here.

EUROPEAN NOTIFICATIONS AND PUBLICATIONS

European Courts

  • CaseT-421/08: Performing Rights Society Ltd v Commission - the General Court has published an order on an application by Performing Right Society Limited for confidential treatment of certain documents in the context of its appeal against the CISAC Article 101 TFEU infringement decision. To read the order, click here.
  • Case T-292/10: Monty Program v Commission - details of an appeal brought by Monty Program against the European Commission's decision to approve the acquisition by Oracle Corporation of Sun Microsystems have been published. To read the Official Journal notification, click here.
  • Case C-389/10 P: KME Germany AG, KME France SAS and KME Italy SpA v Comm - details of an appeal brought by KME Germany and others against the judgment of the General Court on appeals against the copper plumbing tubes cartel decision have been published. To read the details of the appeal, click here.
  • Case C-194/09 P: Alcoa Trasformazioni Srl - Advocate General Jaaskinen has delivered his opinion in the action lodged by Alcoa against the General Court's dismissal of Alcoa's appeal against a European Commission decision to open an in-depth state aid investigation into preferential electricity tariffs applicable to two aluminium plants owned by Alcoa. To read the opinion, click here.

Mergers Invitation to Comment

  • COMP/M.5902: LWM/RWI/F&F – sale of frozen food products, agricultural products. Interested parties should submit their comments by 9 October 2010. To read the notification, click here.
  • COMP/M.5960: CA/Carispe – banking, finance. Interested parties should submit their comments by 8 October 2010. To read the notification, click here.

Mergers – Referred to National Competition Authorities

  • COMP/M.5881: ProSiebenSat.1 Media/ RTL Interactive/ JV - the European Commission has decided to refer the assessment of the proposed joint venture between ProSiebenSat.1 and RTL to the German and Austrian competition authorities. To read the press release, click here.

Mergers Cleared

  • COMP/M.5951: Hewitt / Aon – consultancy, provision of human capital services. The full text of the decision will be available shortly. To read the press release, click here.
  • COMP/M.5765: Foxconn / Dell (Products) Poland – production of computers, electronic manufacturing services. The full text of the decision will be available shortly. To read the press release, click here.
  • COMP/M.5903: Tech Data Europe/ Brightstar Europe/ Triade Holding - wholesalers of IT, consumer electronics and telecommunication products. The full text of the decision will be available shortly. To read the press release, click here.
  • COMP/M.5933: Marfrig/ Keystone – supply of food, meat products. The full text of the decision will be available shortly. To read the press release, click here.
  • COMP/M.5949: Deutsche Bank/ Actavis – banking, development, production and marketing of generic pharmaceutical products. The full text of the decision will be available shortly. To read the press release, click here.
  • COMP/M.5918: GDF Suez / Gaselys – raw materials and derivatives in the energy sector. The full text of the decision will be available shortly.
  • COMP/M.5956: EADS / OPIP - electronic defence and security systems and products. The full text of the decision will be available shortly.

Public Procurement

  • The European Ombudsman has published a draft recommendation to the European Commission that it order an ex-post evaluation of a tender procedure, after finding that the Commission had failed to address a conflict of interest that had arisen by virtue of the fact that an expert who advised the tender evaluation committee had previously worked for the short listed tenderers, including the successful tenderer. To read the draft recommendation, click here.

State Aid

  • The European Commission has adopted a Communication on opportunities and challenges for European cinema in the digital era, which considers that viable public support schemes are necessary for the transition to digital cinema. To read the press release, click here.

Speeches

  • Joaquín Almunia: "The past and the future of merger control in the EU" – to read the speech, click here.
  • Alexander Italianer: "Safeguarding due process in antitrust proceedings" – to read the speech, click here.
  • Neelie Kroes: " Telecoms markets - working together for change" – to read the speech, click here.

Miscellaneous

  • The European Commission's Recommendation on regulated access to Next Generation Access networks (NGAs) was published in the Official Journal. To read the Recommendation, click here.
  • The European Parliament has voted to adopt a draft Regulation on measures to safeguard security of gas supply. To read the press release, click here.

UK NOTIFICATIONS AND PUBLICATIONS

Mergers – Invitation to Comment

  • AES Ballylumford / Premier Power – generation and wholesale supply of electricity. Interested parties should submit their comments by 12 October 2010. To read the invitation to comment, click here.
  • Acergy SA / Subsea 7 – oil and gas construction engineering services. Interested parties should submit their comments by 11 October 2010. To read the invitation to comment, click here.

Mergers – Undertakings in Lieu

  • Asda /194 Netto stores – groceries. The OFT has announced that it is intending to seek undertakings in lieu from Asda in relation to its proposed acquisition of Netto's 194 groceries stores in the UK. To read the press release, click here.

Mergers – Full Text Decisions

  • ME/4599/10: Bernard Matthews/ Lincs Turkeys – to read the full text of the clearance decision, click here.
  • ME/4579/10: Idox plc / Grantfinder Limited – to read the full text of the clearance decision, click here.

Miscellaneous

  • The OFT has issued a Statement of Objections to Royal Bank of Scotland and Barclays, following its investigation into the disclosure of confidential and commercially sensitive future pricing information. To read the press release, click here.
  • The OFT has published a report on work that has been taken to resolve the concerns that it identified in its 2008 market study on the personal current accounts market. To read the report, click here.
  • Ofcom has published draft determinations to resolve disputes between BT and each of Cable & Wireless, Gamma, Colt, Verizon and Opal regarding the repayment by BT of certain charges for the transit of traffic. To read the draft determinations, click here.
  • Ofcom has published its final determination to resolve disputes between H3G and each of Everything Everywhere, O2, Orange, T-Mobile and Vodafone about mobile termination rates for calls to ported numbers. To read the final determinations, click here.
  • The Competition Commission has published the recommendations that it has made to the Civil Aviation Authority regarding the Heathrow consultation protocol in order to implement effectively a remedy required following the BAA market investigation. To read the recommendations, click here.
  • The Independent Commission on Banking has published an issues paper and call for evidence as part of its examination of reforms to the UK banking sector to promote financial stability and competition. To read the issues paper and call for evidence, click here.
  • Ofwat has published its response to the consultation by the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills on the deployment of superfast broadband and the benefits and problems associated with sharing the infrastructure of other non-telecommunications utilities. To read the response, click here.

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