competition policy

Approved, under EU State aid rules, an aid package to support the construction and operation of the first nuclear power plant in Poland. The nuclear plant, with an electricity generation capacity of up to 3 750 MW, is scheduled to start operating in the second half of the of the 2030s.

The European Commission has approved €47 million German State aid for Vetter Pharma, a German pharmaceutical service provider. The aid will support the establishment of a new plant for the aseptic filling of injectable medicine into vials and syringes in Saarlouis.

The European Commission has approved a €1.5 billion Italian State aid scheme to support strategic investments that add clean technologies (cleantech) manufacturing capacity, in line with the objectives of the Clean Industrial Deal.

The European Commission has opened a formal antitrust investigation to assess whether Google has breached EU competition rules by using the content of web publishers, as well as content uploaded on the online video-sharing platform YouTube, for artificial intelligence (‘AI’) purposes.

The European Commission has approved unconditionally, under the EU Merger Regulation, the proposed acquisition of Kellanova by Mars, Incorporated (‘Mars’). The Commission has concluded that the proposed transaction would not raise competition concerns in the European Economic Area (‘EEA’).

The European Commission has opened a formal antitrust investigation to assess whether Meta’s new policy on artificial intelligence (‘AI’) providers’ access to WhatsApp may breach EU competition rules.

The European Commission has informed Universal Music Group (‘UMG’) of its preliminary view that its proposed acquisition of Downtown may restrict competition in the market for the wholesale distribution of recorded music.

The European Commission has approved unconditionally, under the EU Merger Regulation, the proposed acquisition of Interpublic Group of Companies, Inc. (‘IPG’) by Omnicom Group Inc. (‘Omnicom’). The Commission concluded that the merger would raise no competition concerns in the European Economic Area

The European Commission has approved, under EU State aid rules, a €450 million (CZK 12 billion) Czech measure to support US chipmaker Onsemi in setting up a novel integrated chip manufacturing plant for Silicon Carbide (‘SiC’) power devices in Rožnov pod Radhoštěm.

The European Commission has approved, under EU State aid rules, a German support measure of up to €1.75 billion in favour of Lausitz Energie Kraftwerke AG (‘LEAG’). The aid will compensate LEAG for the early phase-out of its lignite-fired power plants in the Lusatian mining area by 2038.