Chillin'Competition

On 20 November we wrote a post on cartel fines saying the following:

“In spite of temporary appearances, though, one should not expect these figures to remain as they are. The upcoming LIBOR decision will certainly inject some significant (record breaking?) “capital” into this years’s numbers.  On top of that, there appear to be a number of cartel decisions stuck somewhere in the pipeline (interestingly, only one cartel decision has so far been adopted in 2013)!.

We got it right (not that it was very difficult):

On the 27th, the Commission adopted a cartel decision fining North Sea shrimp producers [BAD JOKE ALERT] -what you’d call shellfish cartellists- with 28 million euros.

And yesterday, the Commission imposed the highest fine ever (1.7 billion euros) on a number of banks within the framework of the LIBOR investigation (still ongoing in relation to a number of parties who chose not to settle).

An interesting coincidence: yesterday representatives of the troika “advising” Spain on economic issues recommended that banks avoid any price wars (no kidding). Anyone sees mixed signals??

Also yesterday, the Commission unconditionally authorized the Microsoft/Nokia deal. It’ll be interesting to appeal (this time I’m kidding… or not) read the decision once it’s published  🙂

Finally, yesterday we had a reception to celebrate the launching of the procedural bible. A great evening all round.