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Antitrust, Competition and Trade

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Office for Competition Issues its First Commitments Decision: Exclusivity Agreements for Five Years or More Raise Competition Concerns Antitrust, Competition and Trade

Office for Competition Issues its First Commitments Decision: Exclusivity Agreements for Five Years or More Raise Competition Concerns

This article was written by Dr. Annalies Muscat and Dr. Laura Spiteri.On the 29 May 2018, the Office for Competition ('the Office') issued a decision to accept commitments offered by St Edward's College and In Design (Malta) Limited. This appears to be the first commitments decision taken by the Office since the introduction of this procedure in 2011. The decision was taken under Article 12C(1) of the Competition Act ('the Act'), which states that where the Director General intends to adopt a decision requiring that an infringement be brought to an end and the undertaking concerned offers commitments to meet…
Annalies Muscat
10th October 2018
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The Uniformity of ‘Energy Labels’ under EU Law Antitrust, Competition and TradeLitigation & Dispute Resolution

The Uniformity of ‘Energy Labels’ under EU Law

 The Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) has recently delivered a judgment on a preliminary reference relating to the labelling of energy-consuming products, or 'energy labels'. In case c-632/16 the Commercial Court of Antwerp, in Belgium, was faced with the following problem.  The Facts :-Dyson, the applicant, is a Belgian company that markets vacuum cleaners that are not fitted with a dust bag. BSH, the respondent, is a Dutch company that markets conventional vacuum cleaners, under the trade marks Siemens and Bosch, that are fitted with a dust bag. According to Delegated Regulation No 665/2013 all market vacuum…
Mark Soler
3rd September 2018
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The Uniformity of ‘Energy Labels’ under EU Law Antitrust, Competition and TradeLitigation & Dispute Resolution

The Uniformity of ‘Energy Labels’ under EU Law

 The Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) has recently delivered a judgment on a preliminary reference relating to the labelling of energy-consuming products, or 'energy labels'. In case c-632/16 the Commercial Court of Antwerp, in Belgium, was faced with the following problem.  The Facts :-Dyson, the applicant, is a Belgian company that markets vacuum cleaners that are not fitted with a dust bag. BSH, the respondent, is a Dutch company that markets conventional vacuum cleaners, under the trade marks Siemens and Bosch, that are fitted with a dust bag. According to Delegated Regulation No 665/2013 all market vacuum…
Mark Soler
3rd September 2018
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Proposed Amendments to the Competition Act and the Consumer Affairs Act Antitrust, Competition and Trade

Proposed Amendments to the Competition Act and the Consumer Affairs Act

This article was written by Dr. Annalies Muscat  & Dr. Laura Spiteri. On the 10 August 2018, the Government of Malta launched a public consultation procedure in relation to proposed amendments to the Competition Act, the Consumer Affairs Act, the Malta Consumer and Competition Affairs Authority Act, and other related legislation.A draft Bill was also published.The amendments proposed to the abovementioned regulations aim to address the considerations made following the judgement of the Constitutional Court in Federation of Estates Agents v Direttur Ġenerali (Kompetizzjoni) et, of the 3 May 2016 (you can read our article on this judgment here. Although there has not yet…
Annalies Muscat
1st September 2018
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Proposed Amendments to the Competition Act and the Consumer Affairs Act Antitrust, Competition and Trade

Proposed Amendments to the Competition Act and the Consumer Affairs Act

This article was written by Dr. Annalies Muscat  & Dr. Laura Spiteri. On the 10 August 2018, the Government of Malta launched a public consultation procedure in relation to proposed amendments to the Competition Act, the Consumer Affairs Act, the Malta Consumer and Competition Affairs Authority Act, and other related legislation.A draft Bill was also published.The amendments proposed to the abovementioned regulations aim to address the considerations made following the judgement of the Constitutional Court in Federation of Estates Agents v Direttur Ġenerali (Kompetizzjoni) et, of the 3 May 2016 (you can read our article on this judgment here. Although there has not yet…
Annalies Muscat
1st September 2018
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Article on margin squeeze published in the European Competition Journal Antitrust, Competition and Trade

Article on margin squeeze published in the European Competition Journal

The article first traces the origins of the principle found in EU competition law that margin squeeze is a stand-alone type of abuse. This principle means that when determining whether an abusive margin squeeze occurred, there is no need to consider whether the retail price charged by the dominant undertaking is predatory, or whether the wholesale price is excessive, or even whether the dominant undertaking has a duty to deal. The article then considers whether the margin squeeze test adopted in EU competition law is sufficient or whether reference to the tests used for predatory pricing, exploitative pricing and/or refusal…
Annalies Muscat
15th January 2018