Antitrust, Competition and Trade

Following the feedback sought by the European Commission (the 'Commission') regarding the commitments offered by Visa and Mastercard further to the Statement of Objections issued by the Commission regarding the competition concerns raised by inter-regional interchange fees ('inter-regional MIFs') for payment transactions, the Commission has accepted the commitments offered by Visa and Mastercard (read more here).These commitments shall be applicable for a period of five years and six months and shall concern inter-regional MIFs applied to payment transactions made using Mastercard, Maestro, Visa, Visa Electron, and V-PAY credit and debit card brands.The accepted commitments and more information about these cases…

This article is written by Dr Annalies Muscat and Dr Laura SpiteriOn the 14 March 2019, the Court of Justice of the European Union ('CJEU') handed down the judgement of Vantaan kaupunki v. Skanska Industrial Solutions Oy, NCC Industry Oy, Asfaltmix Oy where it concluded that if a company changes ownership, the restructured company or the purchasing company can be held liable for the anti-competitive behaviour of its predecessors, not justin public enforcement actions but also in private actions. The case dealt with a group of Finnish companies that formed a cartel in the asphalt market between 1994 and 2002…