McDermott’s Antitrust M&A Snapshot is a resource for in-house counsel and others who deal with antitrust M&A issues but are not faced with these issues on a daily basis. In each quarterly issue, we will provide concise summaries of Federal Trade Commission (FTC), Department of Justice (DOJ) and European Commission (EC) news and events related to M&A, including significant ongoing investigations, trials and consent orders, as well as analysis on the trends we see developing in the antitrust review process.
European Commissioner of Competition Margrethe Vestager made news when she announced that the European Commission had launched a new IT system enabling individuals to anonymously report cartel activity. In parallel, several EU Member States have–in recent weeks–highlighted the role of individual informants in their own enforcement efforts. Taken together, these developments show that the stakes of effective and meaningful antitrust compliance continue to rise, as individuals have more avenues to report anticompetitive conduct.
Speaking in Berlin on March 16, 2017, Commissioner Vestager stated, “We’ve discovered a lot of cartels thanks to leniency programs […] But we don’t just rely on leniency. We pay attention to other methods as well. And that includes encouraging individuals to come forward, when their conscience is troubled by the information that they have about a cartel. That’s why we recently launched a new IT system to help people tell us anonymously about cartels. The system means that we can communicate both ways with them without risking their anonymity while we gather information.”
Commissioner Vestager noted that the European Commission’s new system is modelled on a system implemented by the German Federal Cartel Office (FCO) in 2012. Notably, the FCO itself published a brochure in late February 2017 titled “Effective Cartel Enforcement” highlighting, among other things, the success of its whistleblowing program. The FCO noted that its system is accessible from its website and “guarantees the anonymity of informers while still allowing for continual reciprocal communication with the investigative staff [at the FCO] via a secure electronic mailbox.” Between June 2012 and December 2016, the FCO reports receiving 1,420 tips, “some of which” have led to proceedings resulting in fines.
A grand jury has indicted three foreign currency exchange spot market dealers for alleged violations of the Sherman Act, 15 U.S.C. § 1, in a case brought jointly by the DOJ’s Antitrust Division and the US Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York (SDNY). The allegations in the case, United States v. Usher, et al., are that the three named defendants conspired to suppress and eliminate competition for the purchase and sale of Euro/US dollar (EUR/USD) currency pairs via price fixing and bid rigging.
The foreign currency exchange spot market (the “FX Spot Market”) enables participants to buy and sell currencies at set exchange rates. The FX Spot Market is an “over-the-counter” market conducted via direct customer-to-dealer trades, i.e., without an exchange. In the market, currencies are traded and priced in pairs, whereby one currency is exchanged for the other. When filling customer orders, dealers in the FX Spot Market do not serve in a broker capacity, but rather fulfill the orders via their own trading and speculation in the requested currency markets. Dealers employ traders to quote prices and engage in trades to fill customer orders. The dealers and their traders are able to access a separate virtual market, known as the interdealer virtual market, which enables currency trades amongst dealers. According to the Indictment, currency pair prices are set by a continuous auction in the interdealer virtual market, where “individual actions taken by competing traders—to bid or not bid, to offer or not offer, to trade or not to trade, at certain times, and using certain tactics—can cause or contribute to a change in the exchange rate shown in the [virtual trading] interface, and thus may benefit, harm, or be neutral to a competing trader.” The Indictment asserts that this is because the benchmarks used by the virtual market were calculated at particular times each day and were based on “real-time bidding, offering, and trading activity” on the virtual trading market.
The Indictment asserts that the defendants violated the Sherman Act by:
engaging in chat room communications whereby they discussed customer orders, trades, names and risk positions;
refraining from trading against each other’s interests;
coordinating bids for the purpose of fixing the price of the EUR/USD pair.
Defendants are alleged to have engaged in profitable EUR/USD transactions while acting to fix prices and rig bids for the EUR/USD product in the FX Spot Market. The Indictment further alleges that others were co-conspirators, suggesting that there may be cooperating witnesses and possibly further indictments to follow. Of note, however, recent Trump Administration changes to US Attorneys and DOJ Division Deputies and Chiefs may conceivably alter the course of this and any follow-on litigation. Regardless, over-the-counter markets have been a focus of antitrust lawsuits in recent years, most notably in the widely-covered Libor suits, and that trend is expected to continue.
The case follows on from the Commission’s Animal Feed Phosphates cartel decision pursuant to which fines totalling €176 million were imposed on a number of producers of animal feed for price fixing and market sharing throughout the EEA.
During the investigation into the infringement, all the companies involved engaged in settlement discussions with the Commission with a view to obtaining a 10 percent reduction in the fine that would otherwise have been imposed had they not settled with the Commission. However, during the settlement process Timab, a subsidiary of the Roullier Group, decided to withdraw from the settlement procedure. The Commission therefore followed the standard administrative infringement procedure against Timab – despite the fact that it had entered into settlements with the other companies involved in the cartel. This was the first time, therefore, that the Commission rendered a decision in a so-called ‘hybrid’ case i.e. where some parties settle but others do not.
During the initial settlement discussions, several meetings were held between the Commission and Timab, during which evidence of the infringement was discussed. On the basis of the evidence available, the Commission informed Timab that a fine in the range of €41 to €44 million would be imposed on it. However, in its final decision of 20 July 2010, the Commission levied a fine of nearly €60 million on Timab.
Timab challenged the Commission’s decision before the General Court of the European Union (GCEU) in case T-456/10, claiming that the Commission had infringed its legitimate expectations regarding the amount of the fine, on the one hand, and its right not to incriminate itself, on the other. Such challenge was unsuccessful, however.
On 4 March 2017, the European Commission (Commission) published a notice concerning the notification of the proposed acquisition of the Spanish aircraft company Industria de Turbo Propulsores SA (Spain, ITP), by Rolls-Royce Holdings plc. (UK, Rolls-Royce). Interested third parties, such as competitors, suppliers or customers can provide the Commission with their observations on the likely impact of the proposed transaction on competition in order to facilitate its substantive assessment.
Interested third parties’ observations must reach the Commission no later than 14 March 2017.
Rolls-Royce is active in the development and manufacture of aircraft engines and power systems for civil aerospace, defense aerospace, marine and energy applications. ITP is a joint venture between Rolls-Royce and Sener Grupo de Ingenieria SA, and it is active in the design and manufacture of aircraft engine components.
It is difficult for General Counsel and their teams to monitor all new developments adequately. With the growth of the Internet and the daily updates to EU competition rules, everyone receives and has access to masses of information, but it is difficult to select that which is really relevant to one’s business.
McDermott’s EU Competition team across Brussels, France, Germany and Italy has authored the EU Competition Annual Review 2016 to help General Counsel and their teams to focus on the essential updates that they should be aware of.
This Special Report summarizes recent developments in EU competition rules during the year 2016 where several new regulations, notices and guidelines were issued by the European Commission and many interesting cases were decided by the General Court and the EU Court of Justice.
All these new rules and judicial decisions can be relevant for international companies operating in the EU. Indeed, in addition to the daily update, this booklet provides an overview of the main recent developments in EU competition rules and can be kept as a ready reference when dealing with complex issues of EU competition law.
McDermott’s Antitrust M&A Snapshot is a resource for in-house counsel and others who deal with antitrust M&A issues but are not faced with these issues on a daily basis. In each quarterly issue, we will provide concise summaries of Federal Trade Commission (FTC), Department of Justice (DOJ) and European Commission (EC) news and events related to M&A, including significant ongoing investigations, trials and consent orders, as well as analysis on the trends we see developing in the antitrust review process.
The Polish Office of Competition and Consumer Protection (Urząd Ochrony Konkurencji i Konsumentów, “UOKiK”) has recently published its 2015 annual report presenting its first experiences with the recent amendments to Polish merger control regulations. However, only future developments will show the effects of the new much more severe rules on cartel infringement proceedings and sanctions for cartel behaviour.
On 18 January 2015 far-reaching changes to the Polish Act on Competition and Consumer Protection (Ustawa o ochronie konkurencji i konsumentów), alternatively named “Antimonopoly Law” (prawo antymonopolowe), came into effect. These have been made to close previously identified gaps and strengthen competition and consumer protection. In addition to important changes with respect to merger control and anticompetitive practices, the Antimonopoly Law as amended has introduced changes that allow for more open dialogue between undertakings and the UOKiK.
Faster and more flexible merger control proceedings
According to UOKiK’s 2015 annual report the average duration of merger control proceedings could be reduced by half despite the fact that the overall number of merger control proceedings increased. The average duration dropped from 57 days in 2014 to 34 days in 2015. Of all merger control proceedings that UOKiK completed in 2015 only three (of 235) were Phase 2 proceedings. This can be explained by the following amendments introduced in early 2015:
A new two-stage merger control process: Phase 1 (1 month) and Phase 2 (4 months). The waiting period may be extended by UOKiK in the event that UOKiK requires additional information and documents from the parties;
New approach in case of competition concerns: UOKiK informs undertakings about its competition concerns so that they may alter the proposed concentration to alleviate UOKiK’s concerns, e.g. through adequate remedies;
Approach towards remedies: Undertakings may request UOKiK that it refrains from publishing in its decisions the deadline by which divestments must be made;
De minimis clause extended: mergers and the creation of joint ventures explicitly (just like acquisitions of control already under the old law) do not need to be notified to the UOKiK if the turnover in Poland of each of the parties to the transaction does not exceed the equivalent of EUR 10 million in each of the two financial years preceding the transaction. The de minimis clause also applies to concentrations whereby control and assets are being acquired simultaneously.
Effective fight against cartels
New rules for more effective fights against cartels have been introduced but could not yet show any significant effect in 2015. The number of started proceedings (from 87 in 2013 down to 34 in 2015) and of leniency applications (from 10 in 2014 down to 2 in 2015) has dropped. UOKIK explains the reduction in numbers with the application of its new “soft approach” that contains inter alia best practices and the authority’s possibility to request undertakings to voluntarily terminate an infringement and to apply its best practices.
Nonetheless, one should keep in mind the following amendments to the law:
New provisions concerning fines on individuals: individuals can now [...]
On 23 December 2016, the Regional Administrative Court of Lazio (the TAR) annulled the decision of the Italian Competition Authority (the Authority), against Sky Italia S.r.l. (Sky); Reti Televisive Italiane S.p.A. (and its subsidiary Mediaset Premium S.p.A.) (RTI); the Italian Football League (Lega Calcio); and Infront Italy S.r.l.(Infront), concerning an alleged violation of Article 101 Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union (TFEU) on the sale of broadcasting rights of the Italian Premier League “Serie A” for the years 2015–2018. According to the TAR, the Authority failed to observe the mandatory time-limit to contest the alleged conduct. The TAR highlighted that the Authority erred in considering the alleged conduct as a market sharing agreement. Furthermore, the Authority also erred in considering the agreement as a restriction “by object.” In particular,, according to TAR, the Authority has not carried out a thorough analysis of the relevant market and has not followed the recent European case law, according to which “in order to determine whether an agreement between undertakings reveals a sufficient degree of harm that it may be considered a ‘restriction of competition by object’ within the meaning of Article 101(1) TFEU, regard must be had to the content of its provisions, its objectives and the economic and legal context of which it forms part” (see Court of Justice of the European Union, case C-373/14 P, Toshiba Corporation v European Commission, 20 January 2016).
The broadcasting rights for the Italian Premier League “Serie A” are allocated, according to Legislative Decree No. 9 of 9 January 2008, through a tender issued by the Lega Calcio. In the 2014 tender, regarding the broadcasting rights for the years 2015–2018, Sky submitted the best bids for the two most relevant lots (A and B). However, considering the conditional bids presented by RTI and the possible creation of a dominant position in the market, the Lega Calcio, advised also by Infront, decided to allocate the relevant lots between Sky (lot A) and RTI (lots B and D). Then, after having received the authorization of both the Authority and the Italian Communication Authority, RTI granted to Sky the sub license of lot D. However, on 13 May 2015, the Authority opened an investigation on the decision-making process for the allocation of the broadcasting rights, and with decision of 19 April 2016, fined RTI of € 51,4 million, Infront of € 9,04 million, Sky of € 4 million and the Lega Calcio of approximately € 2 million for alleged market sharing in breach of Article 101 TFEU.
In October 2016, the European Commission launched a public consultation to continue the process of identifying possible areas of the EU Merger Regulation suitable for refinement, improvement and simplification.
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