Chillin'Competition

It used to be commonplace for many to say that EU Law was lagging behind US antitrust law. Not sure that is still the case, assuming it ever was. But there is an important are where EU judges (even if perhaps not yet all EU competition authorities) are one step ahead:

The US Supreme Court heard yesterday oral arguments in the Ohio vs Amex case. Some say the case is fascinating. To me it is important, but it could not be more straightforward in the light of the current EU case law.

Indeed, the issues to be decided upon in that case are exactly the ones that EU Courts have perfectly understood and applied in cases like Cartes Bancaires, Mastercard, Streetmap, Bottin, etc. That is the view I tried to develop here:  Lessons from the Case Law for Competition Law Enforcement in Multi-Sided Markets (A Teaser)

The transcript of the hearing held yesterday is already available here  (that, on the other hand, shows that US Court litigation is more advanced logistically) [By the way, I can’t comment on the transcript yet because I am preparing for a hearing at the CJEU on Thursday (all those interested in tax-related State aid should attend, because there will be no transcript)]. I did however read many of the amicus curiae briefs a few weeks ago (all of which are also publicly available here) and they confirmed the point that this is all stuff we know too well and that judges in Europe have already understood all too well.