Last week, on 16 May 2023, the Swedish Government presented a legislative bill on foreign direct investments (the FDI Act) to the Swedish Parliament. The FDI Act, which is suggested to enter into force on 1 December 2023 significantly expands the Government’s current powers to scrutinize foreign inv...
Increased competition law scrutiny has recently entered the employment arena. Thus, it is important to be aware that agreements between employers to fix wages or not to recruit staff (so-called no-poach agreements) could result in high fines, damages claims, exclusion from public procurements and ba...
In this blog post, we take a closer look at the merger control year of 2022 in Sweden and the cases that caught the Swedish Competition Authority’s (“SCA”) attention. 2022 in numbers In 2022, the SCA received 117 merger filings. While this was a slight decrease compared to the record breaking 135 no...
On 6 February 2023, the European Commission (the Commission) published a Draft Implementing Regulation for the application of the Regulation on Foreign Subsidies (FSR). The FSR, which entered into force on 12 January 2023, allows the Commission to screen non-EU government subsidies. The FSR requires...
In a recent preliminary ruling regarding Unilever, the Court of Justice of the European Union (ECJ) reaffirms the position taken in Intel, declaring that a national competition authority (NCA) cannot disregard claims that an exclusivity scheme is incapable of producing anticompetitive effects. The e...
In the context of the common agricultural policy reform for 2023-2027, the European Parliament and the Council of the European Union adopted in 2021 a new exclusion from the EU competition rules for agricultural products. The Commission has now published a draft proposal for sustainability agreement...
The Swedish Government has recently adopted a Governmental Bill with a proposal of how the European Accessibility Directive, adopted in 2019, is to be transposed into Swedish law. The new rules require that certain key products, such as computers, smartphones, ATMs, ticketing and check-in machines,...
The Swedish courts have not been on the forefront when it comes to requesting preliminary rulings – despite a rather obvious need for such rulings in many cases where claims from one or both parties have been denied by the courts. The unwillingness to seek guidance from the Court of Justice of the E...
At the turn of the year, Sweden will take over the six-month rotating presidency of the Council of the European Union. Institutional and legislative responsibility is shouldered at a time characterised by war and economic crisis. The Swedish Precidency Program The presidency program, including the p...
The Court of Justice of the European Union (the “ECJ”) and the General Court in Luxembourg have a very important role to play as the interpreters of EU law. To ensure consistency in the application of EU law throughout the Union, national courts in the EU Member States may request so-called prelimin...
The Illumina/Grail saga is turning into a nightmare for the US biotech company Illumina. On 5 December 2022, it received a statement of objections (SO) from the European Commission (the EC) setting out the restorative measures to be taken by Illumina to unwind the acquisition of the US biotech start...
While Articles 101 and 102 TFEU are the same as in the early days of European cooperation, the rules governing their application are constantly adapted to changes in society and market behaviour. These last couple of years, the European Commission has been more active than ever, adopting new regulat...