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The search returned 6 results.


The Duplication of Proceedings and Penalties under Sectoral Rules and Competition Law Recast: Toshiba Is Dead, Long Live Bpost? (C-117/20 bpost) journal article

Jeroen Dewispelaere, Tatiana Ghysels

European Competition and Regulatory Law Review, Volume 6 (2022), Issue 3, Page 278 - 283

Case C-117/20 bpost, Judgment of the Court (Grand Chamber) of 22 March 2022 The Court of Justice confirms that the non bis in idem principle, as guaranteed by Article 50 of the Charter, also applies in the event of a duplication of proceedings and penalties under sectoral rules and competition law. However, it is added that the application of this principle does not preclude a legal person from being fined for an infringement of competition law where, on the same facts, that person has already been the subject of a final decision following proceedings relating to an infringement of sectoral rules, provided that there are clear and precise rules making it possible to predict which acts or omissions are liable to be subject to a duplication of proceedings and penalties, and also to predict that there will be coordination between the competent authorities; that the two sets of proceedings have been conducted in a sufficiently coordinated manner within a proximate timeframe; and that the overall penalties imposed correspond to the seriousness of the offences committed.



Antitrust Decisions as a Sledgehammer? journal article

A Descriptive Study on the Impact of Cartel Investigations on Stock Prices

Seppe Maes, Caroline Buts

European Competition and Regulatory Law Review, Volume 6 (2022), Issue 2, Page 108 - 119

Companies under investigation for anticompetitive behaviour in breach of the competition rules face heavy fines, high legal costs, loss of future profits and reputational damage. In addition, listed companies also seem to (temporarily) experience negative shocks in their stock market value. This article provides a descriptive analysis of the impact of the European Commission’s press release, announcing an antitrust investigation, on the stock market performance of the companies involved. Furthermore, we discuss the influence of the press release covering the Commission’s decision and accompanying fine. Reviewing four cases for each of these two moments, we conclude that an antitrust investigation or fine can be linked to a substantial negative shock to the stock market value of the companies concerned. While the drop is sizeable and thus clearly visible for almost all companies, the effect also seems to be relatively short-lived. Interestingly, the effects mostly seem more pronounced for the announcement of the investigation than for the fine, with some cases barely showing an effect of the latter. This could indicate that the stock market already accounts for the full effects around the time of the initial announcement. Keywords: antitrust; cartel investigation; impact assessment; stock market performance



A Quantitative Analysis of the Efficiency of the EU’s Leniency Policy journal article

Lynn Vanhaverbeke, Caroline Buts

European Competition and Regulatory Law Review, Volume 4 (2020), Issue 1, Page 12 - 22

Leniency policies constitute an essential part of antitrust enforcement. They are crucial for the detection as well as the deterrence of anticompetitive behaviour. While the usefulness of such policies is beyond doubt, and despite a wide range of theoretical models, very few studies quantitatively investigate their efficiency. By means of regression and variance analyses, this article studies the effects of the EU’s leniency policy from 1985 until 2017. More specifically, we analyse whether the leniency notice i) influences the amount of information that companies reveal to the European Commission, and ii) impacts the duration of the Commission’s investigation. We find that leniency policy leads companies to reveal more information regarding the anticompetitive conduct. Interestingly, leniency also increases the length of investigation procedures. Keywords: leniency policy; efficiency; provision of information; duration of investigation

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