Competition Law & Antitrust

The incoming Competition Commissioner, Joaquin Almunia, who takes office as from February 2010, has been the Commission’s Economic Affairs Commissioner. Companies can probably expect more vigorous EU competition law enforcement from Mr. Almunia, in particular, involving abuses of dominant position, vertical restraints and issues involving the antitrust/IP interface (e.g. refusals to license, discriminatory licensing etc.)

While the Corporate Sentencing Guidelines went into effect in 1991, it was not until 1996 that the real punitive potential of the law was realized – with the imposition of a $340 million criminal fine in a case against Daiwa Bank. Writing that same year in the Caremark decision,

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