EU-kommissionen har föreslagit en genomgripande reform av GBER. Ett intensivt arbete väntar nu såväl kommissionen som medlemsstaterna.

The latest draft of the EU foreign direct investment (FDI) regulation is out, following intense negotiations over the last few months. If adopted, the rules will raise the floor, but not lower the ceiling, for FDI screening across the EU. In our latest blog posts, we discuss the key changes and their potential implications for the Swedish FDI screening regime.

The ongoing review of the UTP Directive provides an excellent opportunity to put the simplification ethos into practice. Cited as an “unintended consequence” of the legislation, the use of a directive has significantly increased complexity for industry and led to an uneven playing field within the EU. In this post, we discuss the ongoing consultation and make the case for a directly applicable regulation. And why not call it the FARM Act?

If sheer volume of FDI notifications reviewed were a European championship, Sweden would likely win by a comfortable margin. Yet, is the large volume of filings an efficient use of the authority’s - and private parties' - resources? An update on the latest FDI statistics from the Inspectorate of Strategic Products (ISP).

Despite the expectation that the use of Article 102 TFEU to review concentrations below thresholds would remain exceptional, Sweden has now joined a growing number of member states applying the Towercast precedent. For parties contemplating deals resulting in high market shares in Sweden, substantive self-assessment will now be necessary regardless of whether turnover thresholds are met.

Victor Sand Holmberg is an experienced antitrust practitioner based in Brussels, with a particular focus on merger control and Swedish FDI.

The avalanche of Swedish FDI filings continues as a result of an unusually wide scope by international comparison. Meanwhile, only a small fraction of cases have resulted in closer scrutiny by the ISP, and the information needed to complete a filing remains limited. With the authority set to impose significant fines for missed filings, a ‘better safe than sorry’ approach is advised.

DMA har gett EU-kommissionen helt andra förutsättningar än tidigare att ingripa mot de amerikanska techjättarna. Beslutet mot Apple visar en myndighet som går in med dragna vapen.

Mario Draghis rapport om EU:s konkurrenskraft är EU-kommissionärernas nya bibel. Men kan den påverka etablerade sanningar inom DG Comp:s tjänstemannakår? Kommissionens översyn av EU:s förvärvsprövningsregler har förutsättningar att bli ovanligt spännande.

In its Gasum v. Gazprom judgment, the Svea Court of Appeal made interesting clarifications on the scope of review in challenge proceedings, when a competition law plea raised by a party has not been assessed by an arbitral panel.