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Let's talk antitrust: Discussing recent cases and emerging competition issues
Recent cases and judgments have shone a light on some emerging themes and trends that companies will want to consider as part of their risk management framework.
France | Publication | October 2023
The European Commission (EC) has just published a European Wind Power package including a Wind Power Action Plan, which aims at helping the European wind industry navigate the current challenging context (i.a. covid recovery, Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, problems of access to raw materials).
The Action Plan lists the key issues identified by the EC (e.g. rising inflation, unpredictable demand, lengthy and difficult permitting process, unfair competition from foreign operators) and proposes measures, organised around six main areas, like access to finance and fairer competition, to deal with these issues. The EC notably points to its band new powers to review Foreign Subsidies that may distort competition within the European market and calls for pro-active engagement of European operators in this regard.
Although this Action Plan should be welcomed as it aims to protect Europe's green industry and strengthens the initial measures outlined in Fit for 55 package and the Renewable Energy Directive (RED III), from a French perspective, it questions the adequacy of the measures recently introduced by the legislator (as the recent Law of 10 March 2023 to encourage the acceleration of renewable energy projects) to sufficiently accelerate the development of renewable energy projects in general and wind power projects in particular, and our economic and energy sovereignty.
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Recent cases and judgments have shone a light on some emerging themes and trends that companies will want to consider as part of their risk management framework.
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After a lacklustre finish to 2022 when compared to the vintage year for M&A that was 2021, dealmakers expected 2023 to see the market continue to cool in most sectors, in response to the economic headwinds of rising inflation (with its corresponding impact on financing costs), declining market valuations, tightening regulatory scrutiny and increasing geopolitical tensions.
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On 18 September 2023, the CMA published its Initial Report (Initial Report) on AI Foundation Models (FM), supplemented in April 2024 with the publication of its “Update Paper” focused on potential antitrust risks associated with FMs and a “Technical Update Report” providing more detail on the development on FMs (collectively the “Reports”). Below, we consider these CMA publications.
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