Competition & Foreign Investment
Blog
New due diligence obligations under the German Supply Chain Due Diligence Act
The "Act on Corporate Due Diligence Obligations in Supply Chains" (Gesetz über die unternehmerischen Sorgfaltsverpflichtungen in Lieferketten; hereafter "Supply Chain Due Dili-gence Act") entered into force in Germany on 1 January 2023.
Up & Coming – Luxembourg's Foreign Investment Control Regime
Recently, a bill was introduced in Luxembourg's parliament seeking to set up a national screening mechanism for foreign direct investment in Luxembourg.
The AFCA publishes guidelines on the Austrian sustainability exemption
In September last year, the Austrian legislator in-corporated a sustainability exemption into Austrian competition law ("Sustainability Exemption"). This was unprecedented given that, so far, the competi-tion authorities in the Netherlands and Greece had only issued vision documents, discussion papers and guidelines on the components of cooperation to increase sustainability between competitors.
Sector inquiry into the Bulgarian e-commerce market
The Bulgarian Commission for Protection of Competition (“CPC”) recently announced the opening of an investigation into the national e-commerce market for consumer goods and services. The sector inquiry comes as no surprise given the increased dynamics and the rapid growth of consumer e-commerce during the pandemic coupled with certain competition law infringements which were identified and sanctioned by the CPC in recent proceedings.
New upcoming changes to Czech competition law
This article deals with the amendment (the "Amendment") of Act No. 143/2001 Coll., on the Protection of Competition (the "Competition Act"), which is currently being discussed by the Government of the Czech Republic, and is expected to come into force in January 2023. The Amendment's main objectives are: a) the transposition of Directive (EU) 2019/1 of the European Parliament and of the Council to empower the competition authorities of the Member States to be more effective enforcers and to ensure the proper functioning of the internal market (the "ECN+ Directive"); and b) the introduction of various other changes to Czech competition legislation, such as the extension of leniency programmes to vertical agreements, the clarification of terminology regarding the settlement process, the possibility of the Czech Competition Office (the "Office") to propose commitments in favour of preserving competition, and joint and several liability of competitors forming a single competitor for offences.