Antitrust Matters – April 2022

Editorial

We are living in turbulent times, and, while many forcescontribute to the turbulence, the main long-term trendcontinues to be climate change. Consequently, the focuson competition and sustainability, which we discussed inthe previous issue of Antitrust Matters, will not fade away,but continue to grow. Whether the European Commissionwill generously accommodate European businesses in theirdesire to join forces in defeating this danger remains to beseen. The recently published draft guidelines on horizontalcooperation seem to offer an opening, but only a small one.Parental liability has been a steady concern in Europeancompetition law for decades. It has become one of thecentral tenets in public and private enforcement of Europeancompetition law. The recent decision of the Court of Justice ofthe European Union in the Sumal case, is not the last word,but one more step in the same direction. In this new issue ofAntitrust Matters, you will find a brief overview of the state ofaffairs, with a reminder that the importance of compliancefor groups of companies and joint ventures can hardlybe underestimated.

Unlike in the US, enforcement focused on “no poach”agreements – promises between or amongst employersnot to hire or recruit each other’s employees – is fairlynew to Europe and Asia. In their contribution in this issue,Nathan Bush, Yong Min Oh, David Smail and Léon Korstendiscuss this developing trend and cover employment law trendsrelating to the Gig Economy, Employee Misclassification andIndustrial relations.

Foreign direct investment (FDI) screening, while anything butnew, has the wind at its back. Whereas a few years ago only ahandful of countries had mature FDI screening, it is increasinglythe norm for a country to have rules in place to protectessential infrastructure and industries from hostile foreigntakeovers. The United Kingdom is – after Brexit not entirelysurprisingly – the pre-eminent example of a country that hasrecently implemented a very comprehensive, very strict regimefor FDI screening retroactively. You can read more about thisin Alistair White’s contribution on the UK National Security andInvestment Regime.

Léon Korsten, on behalf of DLA Piper’s Antitrust community