News

15 | 12 | 2011

Patent Acquisition, Patent Wars and Technology Transfer: A Growing Area of Interest for Competition Policy

Company strategies in the area of intellectual property rights have long been almost exclusively the province of IP Law. This is rapidly changing. Competition authorities are having a closer look at how companies acquire IPRs, and how they enforce the IP rights that they hold. The European Commi... More

07 | 12 | 2011

CRA's Annual Conference takes place in Brussels

CRA's annual conference on "Economic Developments in European Competition Policy" took place in Brussels on 7 December. The programme included four Chief Economists from major European agencies (DG Competition, the UK Competition Com... More

24 | 11 | 2011

Competition Commission clears BATS/Chi-X Europe merger

Alan Overd and Rameet Sangha advised BATS Trading Limited, owned by BATS Global Markets Inc, on its anticipated acquisition of Chi-X Europe Limited. Both companies operate Multilateral Trading Facilities (MTFs) which enable market parti... More

25 | 10 | 2011

Competition Commission provisionally clears Kerry/Headland merger

The Competition Commission has provisionally cleared the completed acquisition of Headland's frozen ready meals (FRM) business by Kerry Foods. Before the merger in January 2011, Kerry and Headland were the two largest suppliers of own-label and contract-packed FRMs to UK customers (typically supe... More

19 | 10 | 2011

European Commission clears acquisition of MWM by Caterpillar

The European Commission has unconditionally cleared Caterpillar's proposed acquisition of MWM, a German maker of reciprocating engine generator sets, or gensets, used for decentralised electricity production, after an in-depth Phase II investigation. While the Commission considered that the merge... More

12 | 10 | 2011

New colleagues from the Chief Economist Team and academia

CRA has expanded its team in Brussels by recruiting three economists from the Chief Economist Team at DG Competition. Dr Raphaël De Coninck, Dr Greg Langus and Dr Hans Zenger all join CRA's Brussels office as Senior Consultants. In addition Pierre Régibeau - a well-known academic eco... More

19 | 09 | 2011

CRA experts to teach course on the role of economics in competition law and practice at UCL

A team of experts from CRA's European Competition Practice, together with Dr Andrea Coscelli (Director of Competition Economics at Ofcom), will be teaching a course on "The Role of Economics in Competition Law & Practice" organised by the Centre for Law, Economics & Society at UCL. The CRA team i... More

12 | 09 | 2011

CRA to hold Annual Brussels Conference on 7 December 2011

The CRA Annual Brussels Conference on Economic Developments in European Competition Policy will be held on Wednesday 7 December 2011 at the Conrad Hotel, Brussels.

For further information on confirmed speakers and how to register, [url=/ecp/assets/cra_brussels_conference_2011.gif]click here[/... More

31 | 08 | 2011

Competition Commission clears Sector/Butlers merger

The CC has cleared the completed "4 to 3" acquisition by Sector Treasury Services Limited (STS) of Butlers, a trading division of ICAP plc, which provides treasury management advisory (TMA) services. STS is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Capita Business Services Limited. Prior to the merger, both c... More

28 | 07 | 2011

Successful appeal against South African Competition Commission

The South African Competition Tribunal has instructed the Competition Commission to reassess its decision to unconditionally allow the merger between printing company Paarl Media and Primedia@Home, a media distribution firm. The merger was approved in January of this year but the Tribunal has rul... More