On 17 September 2019, the Portuguese Competition Authority fined the electricity company EDP €48 million for abusing its dominant position in the market for secondary electricity reserve services in Portugal between 2009 and 2013 by manipulating its electricity offer from its generating units. Portugal Competition Authority sanctions Energias de Portugal (EDP) €48m for abuse of […]

On 1 July 2022, the Portuguese Competition Authority (AdC) sanctioned a group of hospitals for collusive behaviour and imposed a total fine of €190.995.000. This conduct restricted competition for hospital health services tenders issued by the public health subsystem Instituto de Proteção e Assistência na Doença (ADSE). ADSE is a public health system reserved mostly […]

On 8 September 2022, the Finnish Competition and Consumer Authority (KKV) found that six companies, namely the three largest Finnish wholesalers and the three largest manufacturers of plastic infrastructure pipeline products for heating, ventilation, and air-conditioning (HVAC), had participated in prohibited coordination. The infringement lasted for more than six years, from 2009 to 2016. The […]

On 5 September 2022, the Dutch Competition Authority (ACM) published a market study on potential anti-competitive practices and their negative consequences on the Dutch and European market for cloud services. Dutch Competition Authority (ACM) publishes a study on Dutch cloud services and identifies switching barriers Cloud services are IT services that are offered over the […]

On 7 July 2022, the CNMC imposed a fine of €203.6m on the six main national construction firms for manipulating public tenders to build infrastructure over more than 25 years, between 1992 and 2017. On the same day, four of the six defendants (Ferrovial, Acciona, Sacyr and ACS) announced the initiation of an appeal procedure […]

On 20 May 2021, the Commission found that Bank of America, Natixis, Nomura, RBS (now NatWest), UBS, UniCredit, and WestLB (now Portigon) participated in a cartel in the primary and secondary markets for European Government Bonds (EGB). The collusive behaviour lasted from 2007 to 2011, amidst a financial crisis and affected the European Economic Area […]

CNMC, the Spanish Competition Authority, has imposed a fine of EUR 59.67 million on 12 companies providing maintenance and management services for the country’s national highway networks. The firms were found to have manipulated tenders for road maintenance and operation services of the State Road Network between 2014 and 2018. In addition to the fines, […]

On 18 February 2022, the Belgian Competition Authority (BCA) sanctioned two pharmaceutical wholesalers, imposing a total fine of EUR 29.8 million on Pharma Belgium-Belmedis SA, after a 40% reduction for cooperation. Febelco CV received immunity from fines for having disclosed the existence of the cartel. Belgium: Pharmaceutical wholesalers sanctioned for collusion This is the BCA’s […]

On 11 March, the European Commission and the Competition and Markets Authority of the United Kingdom announced investigations into a suspicious agreement between Google and Facebook (not yet Meta at that time) in September 2018 related to online advertising. Both agencies believe that the agreement may have breached their respective competition rules on anti-competitive agreements […]

In January 2022, the Bundeskartellamt conducted unannounced dawn raids at the German premises of cable manufacturers and other companies active in the market of cable manufacturing. According to the statements published by the companies, these inspections concern the undertakings Nexans, Leoni, and Prysmian. The undertakings declared their willingness to cooperate with the Bundeskartellamt. The Bundeskartellamt […]