The European Commission (the “Commission”) recently decided to withdraw its guidance on the referral mechanism in Article 22 of the EU Merger Regulation (“EUMR”). This is a consequence of the Illumina/Grail judgement, where the European Court of Justice (the “CJEU”) held that the Commission may not...
1 December 2024, marks one year since the Swedish Screening of Foreign Direct Investments Act (the ”FDI Act”) entered into force. As per 29 November 2024, 1,206 investments have been notified under the Swedish regime. In this blog post we will comment on the application of the FDI Act and provide st...
In Illumina/Grail the Court of Justice of the European Union (the “CJEU”) attempts to restore order to EU merger control, barring the Commission from using the EU Merger Regulation to extend its review powers. It remains to be seen whether this aim will be achieved. In this blog post we clarify Arti...
On 31 October the European Commission (the “Commission”) fined the global pharmaceutical company Teva €462.6 million for abusing its dominant position by delaying competition for its multiple schlerosis (MS) blockbuster medicine, Copaxone. According to the Commission, Teva both artificially extended...
Earlier this year, International Flavors & Fragrances (“IFF”) was fined €15.9 million for obstructing an unannounced inspection (commonly known as “dawn raid”) carried out by the European Commission through the deletion of Whatsapp messages exchanged with a competitor. This underlines the import...
Recently the Court of Justice of the European Union (the “CJEU”) published its final judgment in the case C-465/20 P Commission v Ireland and Others concerning two tax rulings issued by Ireland in favour of Apple. The CJEU overturned the General Court’s judgment and upheld the Commission’s decision,...
Corruption and unlawful influence undermine fair competition in the market, discouraging legitimate companies from investing in business development. To combat these challenges, the Swedish Government has introduced the Action Plan Against Corruption and Unlawful Influence for 2024-2027 (Sw. Handlin...
Earlier this week the Court of Justice of the European Union (the “CJEU”) published its long-awaited judgment in the joined cases C-611/22 P Illumina v Commission and C-625/22 P Grail v Commission concerning the European Commission’s powers to review mergers that fall under the thresholds of both EU...
On 1 August 2024, the Swedish Civil Contingencies Agency (Sw. Myndigheten för samhällsskydd och beredskap) published its revised guidelines (MSBFS 2024:8) listing types of essential services that fall under the scope of the Swedish Act on Foreign Direct Investments (the “FDI Act”). The revised guide...
Introduction Despite the increasing number of adopted sanctions, targeting not only Russia and Russian entities, but also, Iran, North Korea, among other jurisdictions, the European Union (the “EU”) has taken note of frequent breaches of sanctions combined with incoherent enforcement at Member State...
The Foreign Subsidies Regulation (the “FSR”), which is applicable in the EU since 12 July 2023, allows the European Commission (the “Commission”) to investigate and to take action against companies that receive financial support from non-EU governments deemed to distort competition within the EU sin...
The impacts of sanctions have increased during the last few years and not the least the ones targeting Russia. Most companies, regardless of where their manufacturing takes place or where their suppliers or customers are located, need to consider the impact of sanctions when entering into all sorts...