EUROPEAN NOTIFICATIONS AND PUBLICATIONS

European Courts

  • Case C-338/09: Yellow Cab Verkehrsbetriebs-GmbH – Advocate General Cruz Villalon has delivered an opinion on a reference for a preliminary ruling from the Austrian national court on the compatibility with EU law of national measures making the grant of an application to provide bus services subject to the requirement to have a registered office or a branch in the member state of the authorising authority. The opinion is not yet available in English. To read the opinion in French, click here.
  • Case C-314/09: Stadt Graz v Strabag and others – The ECJ has delivered a ruling on a reference from an Austrian court on the extent of the right to claim damages from a contracting authority for breach of the public procurement rules. To read the judgment, click here.

Mergers Invitation to Comment

  • COMP/M.5936: EADS DS/Atlas/JV – defence, security, naval electronics. Interested parties should submit their comments by 15 October 2010. To read the notification, click here.
  • COMP/M.5880: Shell/Topaz/JV – oil and natural gas, aviation fuel, petroleum, power generation. Interested parties should submit their comments by 15 October 2010. To read the notification, click here.
  • COMP/M.5994: Apotheek Docmorris/K-Mail Order/JV – retail trade. Interested parties should submit their comments by 11 October 2010. To read the notification, click here.
  • COMP/M.5934: Veolia Water UK and Veolia Voda/Subsidiaries of United Utilities Group – water management. Interested parties should submit their comments by 10 October 2010. To read the notification, click here.

Mergers Cleared

  • COMP/M.5946: Credit Mutuel / Banco Popular Espanol / Banco Popular Hipotecario
  • COMP/M.5977: Faurecia / Plastal – car components. The full text of the decision will be available shortly. To read the press release, click here.
  • COMP/M.5958: Goldman Sachs/ TPG/ Ontex – investment banking, hygiene disposable products. The full text of the decision will be available shortly. To read the press release, click here.
  • COMP/M.5975: Lion Capital/ Picard Groupe – frozen food, private equity. The full text of the decision will be available shortly. To read the press release, click here.

Public Procurement

  • The European Commission has decided to refer Hungary, Greece and Germany to the ECJ in respect of alleged breaches of the EU public procurement rules. To read the press releases, click here, here and here.

State Aid

  • The European Commission has published a consultation paper on the Framework on state aid for shipbuilding. Interested parties should submit their comments by 6 December 2010. To read the consultation, click here.
  • The European Commission has opened in-depth state aid investigations into two Spanish schemes for financing the digitisation and extension of the terrestrial television network in Spain. To read the press release, click here.
  • A European Commission notice on current state aid recovery interest rates and reference/discount rates for all 27 EU member states, applicable as from 1 October 2010, has been published in the Official Journal. To read the notice, click here.
  • The European Commission has referred Spain to the ECJ for its failure to comply with a previous court ruling requiring the recovery of illegal state aid granted to the Magefesa group. To read the press release, click here.

Miscellaneous

  • The OECD has published a paper on the proceedings of a policy roundtable on generic pharmaceuticals, which examined the nature of competition between generic and branded products in the pharmaceutical sector. To read the paper, click here.
  • The European Commission announced that it has decided under Article 9 of Regulation 1/2003 to make legally binding commitments offered by ENI SpA in order to address the Commission's concerns that certain practices of ENI in its management and operation of its natural gas transmission pipelines may have infringed Article 102 of the TFEU. To read the press release, click here.
  • The European Commission has requested France and Spain to abolish specific charges on the turnover of telecoms operators that were introduced when the states decided to end paid advertising on public TV channels. To read the press release, click here.

UK NOTIFICATIONS AND PUBLICATIONS

CAT

  • The CAT has ruled on an application by Sainsbury's Supermarket Limited and J Sainsbury plc (together Sainsbury's) to intervene in support of the OFT in the six appeals against the OFT's tobacco retail pricing decision. To read the ruling, click here.

Mergers – Invitation to Comment

  • Northern & Shell Broadcasting Limited / CLT-UFA Holdings Limited – general broadcasting. Interested parties should submit their comments by 13 October 2010. To read the invitation to comment, .

Mergers – Cleared

  • ME/4610/10: EDR Landmark Group Limited of Argyll Environmental Limited - environmental risk reports. The full text of the decision will be available shortly. To read the notification, click here.
  • ME/4629/10: Thai Union Frozen Products Public Company Limited of MW Brands Holdings SAS - supply of ambient sea food products. The full text of the decision will be available shortly. To read the notification, click here.

Mergers – Full Text Decisions

  • ME/4568/10: British Sky Broadcasting Group plc / TV channel business of Virgin Media Television – to read the full text of the clearance decision, click here.
  • ME4570/10: Carpetright plc / four Allied Carpet stores – to read the full text of the clearance decision, click here.
  • ME/4655/10: Korea National Oil Corporation / Dana Petroleum plc – to read the full text of the clearance decision, click here.

Miscellaneous

  • Ofcom has announced that it has extended the period for determining disputes between BT and each of Sky, TalkTalk and Virgin Media about BT's pricing for Ethernet services. To read the notification, click here.
  • Ofcom has announced that it will determine a dispute between Everything Everywhere (EE) and BT regarding the termination rate payable by EE to BT for calls to 03 numbers that originate on EE's mobile network and terminate on BT's fixed network. To read the notification, click here.
  • Ofcom has announced that it has added O2 as a party to the dispute between Everything Everywhere and BT about termination charges for 080 numbers. To read the notification, click here.
  • Ofcom has adopted revised SMP Service Conditions relating to leased lines charge control in accordance with directions issued by the CAT following an appeal by Cable & Wireless. To read the revised conditions, click here.
  • Ofcom has published its determination of its reviews of the financial terms for the Channel 3 and Channel 5 licences. To read the determination, click here.

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