On 12 September 2023, the President of Ukraine signed Law No. 5431 "On Amendments to Certain Legislative Acts of Ukraine to Improve the Activities of the Antimonopoly Committee of Ukraine" ("Law"), which launches a reform of Ukrainian competition law. The Law will enter into force on 1 January 2024.

Where behavior is investigated in parallel by the Austrian competition authorities and the Public Prosecutor’s Office (PPO), the latter usually requests the competition authorities to provide it with copies of their files, including leniency statements and settlement submissions that have been filed with the Federal Competition Authority (FCA), and adds (parts of) these documents to its own file. Victims of competition law infringements can thus indirectly get access to leniency statements and settlement submissions through an inspection of the PPO’s file. This practice risks weakening the effectiveness of the Austrian leniency program and settlement procedure as it may deter undertakings from cooperating with the FCA.

This article aims to explore key aspects of Regulation (EU) 2022/720 (Regulation), which governs the block exemption of specific vertical agreements in the European Union market, with a focus on its implications within the Bulgarian market, particularly for its dynamic IT sector, which had a 26% growth in 2022 and reached 4.5% of the country’s GDP. Further to that, Bulgaria has seen even more foreign investments by VCs and big corporations alike, therefore such antitrust legislations are closely followed by the business ecosystem. Some of the world’s biggest automotive giants also have software and engineering development centers here, with new leading players expected to enter soon.

During the past year, the competition enforcement activities of the Albanian Competition Authority (ACA) have seen a considerable increase. The ACA approved 99 decisions, a record since its establishment 17 years ago, and fines during the year were the highest imposed in the last five years. Most of the ACA decisions were related to approvals of merger transactions, followed by decisions on market conduct investigations.

This article explains the tools available under Ukrainian competition law that allow interested third parties (customers, suppliers, competitors, etc.) to participate in the merger review process and protect their rights and interests. It also addresses merging parties’ potential risks associated with the involvement of third parties.

The French antitrust authority – Autorite de la Concurrence (Autorite) – has recently finalized a significant investigation against Electricite de France (EDF) and reached a notable decision that is expected to shape business models in electricity markets. Examining the case, here are its potential impacts and replicability on the Turkish electricity market.