On 20 December 2022, the European Commission made Commitments offered by Amazon – to ensure that Amazondoes not use marketplace seller data for its own retail operations and that it grants non-discriminatory access to Buy Box and Prime– legally binding (see theCommission’s press releaseand theCommission’s Decision).
ALCIS is appointed as Monitoring Trustee to oversee the implementation of these Commitments.
Sellers and carriers suspecting non-compliance with the Commitments may submit a substantiated, written complaint to the Monitoring Trustee. To file a complaint, please use the Complaint Form (Complaint Form) and send it to amazon.EC-commitments@alcis-advisers.com or per mail at:
The merger of two European leaders in corporate car leasing and fleet management raised competition concerns of the EU Commission in several EU countries.
As a remedy, ALD committed to divest its national subsidiaries in Norway, Ireland and Portugal, and LeasePlan’s subsidiaries in Finland, Luxembourg and the Czech Republic. The Divestment Businesses are being sold to Drivalia and Leasys (Credit Agricole / Stellantis).
ALCIS has been acting as monitoring trustee of the EU Commission.
Following a complaint by the AdTech company Criteo in September 2019, the French Autorité de la concurrence raised competition concerns about a number of practices of Meta that could affect competition conditions in the market of advertising intermediation services.
As a remedy, Meta proposed a complex set of behavioral commitments over 5 resp. 3 years:
granting qualified, eligible AdTech service providers transparent, anti-discriminatory access to the exclusive MBP Badge status of Meta,
training Meta’s sales teams accordingly, and
giving eligible AdTech partners access to a new recommendation functionality API allowing for individual queries for product recommendations and user-level bid adjustments.
Alcis has been acting as monitoring trustee of the French Autorité de la concurrence.
Philip Morris’ acquisition of the leading European tobacco group Swedish Match led to competition concerns with the EU Commission.
As a remedy, Philip Morris committed to divest SMD logistics, Swedish Match’s Logistics and Distribution subsidiary that distribute tobacco products for the whole tobacco industry in Sweden and Norway. The Divestment Business is being sold to R12.
Alcis has been acting as monitoring trustee to the EU Commission.
On 20 December 2022, the EU Commission approved Germany’s EUR 6.3 billion German measure to recapitalize energy group SEFE (Securing Energy for Europe, formerly “Gazprom Germania”) in the context of the war in Ukraine. The measure was approved under the State aid Temporary Crisis Framework, subject to Commitments.
ALCIS is appointed as Monitoring Trustee to oversee the implementation of the Commitments (both behavioral and structural) made by Germany and SEFE in this respect.
The Network Sharing Agreements concluded between the global telecommunication group T-Mobile, infrastructure operator Cetin and O2 in the Czech Rep. raised competition concerns with the EU Commission.
The parties committed to implement remedies relating to :
ring-fencing/governance,
network modernization,
pricing
and limits to further extension of their cooperation.
Alcis has been acting as monitoring trustee to the EU Commission.
The acquisition of AGM (A) by METRO (D) from REWE (D) raised competition concerns in the Austrian food wholesale and distribution market.
To address the Austrian competition authorities’ concerns, METRO committed to divest the AGM stores in Bludenz and Klagenfurt. Both stores were sold to local competitors.
ALCIS acted as MT to the Austrian competition authorities.
On 21 December 2021, the European Commission approved €2.55 billion restructuring aidfrom Portugal to TAP Group (see the Commission’s press release and the Commission’s Decision), subject to Commitments.
ALCIS was appointed as Monitoring Trustee to oversee the implementation of the Commitments given by Portugal and TAP Group.
Among other Commitments, Portugal committed that TAP Air Portugal makes available up to 18 daily slots per day at Lisbon international airport to a competing carrier (see Remedy package at LIS).
easyJet was selected as the remedy taker and has been operating the remedy slots at Lisbon Int Airport since 30 October 2022.
The acquisition of the multi-technical service group Equans by Bouygues raised competition concerns with the EU Commission.
As a remedy, Bouygues committed to divest its affiliated company Colas Rail Belgium, providing catenary and rail track installation and maintenance services in Belgium. Colas Rail Belgium was sold to EQOS group.
ALCIS acted as monitoring trustee of the EU Commission.
On 5 April 2021 the European Commission approved up to €4 billion measure of France to recapitalise Air France. The measure was approved under the State aid Temporary Framework, subject to Commitments (see Commission’s decision)
ALCIS is appointed as Monitoring Trustee to oversee the implementation of the Commitments (both behavioral and structural) given by France and Air France-KLM in this respect.
Under the Structural CommitmentsFrance committed that Air France makes available to a remedy taker up to 18 daily slots at Paris Orly airport by way of code-sharing and to definitively transfer the slots (without transferring staff or else) to the remedy taker.
Vueling was selected as the remedy taker and started to operate the remedy slots at Paris Orly airport as from 2 November 2021.
The London Stock Exchange’s acquisition of the Refinitiv business (US) raised competition concerns with the EU Commission (Phase II investigation) and Singapore’s authority CCCS.
As a remedy, LSEG committed to:
divest the Italian Stock Exchange Borsa Italiana (sold to the European exchange operator Euronext)
grant open, non-discriminatory access to its OTC IRD clearing services
and provide open access to financial data services (incl. maintaining service quality and ring-fencing personnel) for 10 years.
ALCIS has been acting as a monitoring trustee for both the EU Commission and CCCS in this process.
The acquisition of Suez’ waste management activities in multiple EU countries by German Mittelstand group Schwarz raised competition concerns with the EU Commission.
As a remedy, Schwarz committed to divest Suez’ Rotterdam based Light Waste Packaging sorting facility – to be carved out and transferred into a new legal entity. The facility was sold to N+P.
ALCIS acted as monitoring trustee of the EU Commission.
