Recent Trends in Antitrust Enforcement

Abstract

This article intends to discuss a selection of the most relevant features of the most recent trends in antitrust enforcement. Firstly, anticompetitive signalling will be addressed: its assessment depends on the kind of information provided. Where such information is of public knowledge or is very well known by the market participants, signalling should not be deemed as anticompetitive. Secondly, the Power Cable case has raised for the first time various problematic issues, such as the possibility to impose parental liability on a purely financial investor, even where the presumed direct infringer would have been able to pay the fine. This appears to be irreconcilable with the objectives for which the case law on parental liability has been elaborated. Thirdly, as to the concept of restriction of competition by object, it is argued that the Intel case does not disavow the principles established in Cartes Bancaires. Indeed, the finding of a violation and the different methodology applied in the first case are only due to its specific factual circumstances. Finally, the nouvelle vague of the case law on the anticompetitive abuse of rights has led to two opposite approaches, one at the EU and the other at the Italian level. The first one, based on the finding of objective circumstances, is perfectly consistent with existing EU case law, while the second, exclusively focused on the exclusionary intent, seems to be in sharp contrast with it. The hope is that the Court of Justice will intervene to resolve this contradiction.