Competition law applies horizontally in all sectors, in addition to sector-specific regulation. The rise of the digital economy is challenging traditional competition law approaches.

Cullen International’s Competition Law service combines unbiased alerts and reports with a structured database of more than 350 English language summaries of national and EU antitrust and merger control cases, organised by country, authority, theme and sector.

This is the last of five intriguing pending cases, which we shared over the past weeks, that you may not have known about!

Case 5: Good move (from joint to sole control)?

In our fifth highlighted case, the Belgian competition authority is reviewing the proposed buyout by Liberty Global of De Vijver Media, currently a joint venture with Mediahuis.

Given that Liberty Global’s cable networks in Belgium make it the largest distributor of TV services in the northern parts of the country, the full vertical integration of Mediahuis’ three popular free-to-air TV channels may raise competition issues.

Before referring the case to the Belgian authority, the European Commission made clear that, competition-wise, Liberty Global’s “incentives” could change in a negative way.

14 May 2019: Update covering further case developments published.

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