Top 10 Anti-trust/Competition Headlines from Europe During the earlier part of the financial crisis the European Commission approved State aid for troubled banks (eg Northern Rock) under “Article 87(3)(c) EC Treaty and the Rescue and Restructuring Guidelines”. New measures for foreign currency loans and foreign currency indexed loans. The Proceeds of Crime Act 2002 (POCA) increased the already wide ranging powers available to the courts in relation to the confiscation and asset forfeiture regimes provided under the Criminal Justice Act 1988 and the Drug Trafficking Act of 1994. On 8 July 2009, the European Commission announced that it had fined each of E.On (including its subsidiary E.On Ruhrgas) and GDF Suez EUR 553 million for operating a market-sharing agreement. The Office of Fair Trading – the UK’s competition law regulator – has fined recruitment agents in the building sector nearly £40m for having engaged in anti-competitive conduct, contrary to the Chapter I Prohibition of the Competition Act 1998. Since the Liner Conferences Block Exemption expired on 18 October 2008, Regulation 823/2000, the Consortia Block Exemption has been the only block exemption regulation applicable to the transport sector, and it will expire in April 2010. On 22 September 2009, the Office of Fair Trading (OFT) brought its five year investigation into bid-rigging in the construction industry to a conclusion, imposing fines of £129.5 million on 103 contractors. On Monday BAA began its appeal in the Competition Appeal Tribunal ("CAT") against the UK Competition Commission's ("CC") order that it should sell three of its UK airports (following the CC's market investigation into BAA's airports). The term "state or municipal aid" has been replaced with "state or municipal preferences". The grounds and procedure for granting state and municipal preferences, and for the state authorities to receive the approval of FAS for preferences, have been revised. Last week, European Competition Commissioner Neelie Kroes (the "Commissioner"), gave a speech in Brazil about recent developments in prosecuting cartels both in Europe and internationally. | 
