When the arsenal of enforcement tools for the German Federal Cartel Office (FCO) was stocked up in January 2021 with the overhauled German competition law, bets were high which of the GAFAM would be hit first. Wasting no time, the FCO immediately put its new powers into action in two high-profile cases: Facebook came first, Amazon followed foot with an investigation announced yesterday. At the same time, the FCO has reallocated staff and resources to increase its focus on e-commerce and the digital economy and even created an entire new division for this. What should players in the digital economy watch out and prepare for?

On 5 May 2021, the European Commission (Commission) has published its proposal for a Regulation on foreign subsidies distorting the internal market (Proposal) – eagerly and anxiously awaited both across Europe and internationally.

BLOMSTEIN advises Qell Acquisition Corp. (Qell) on a billion-dollar merger with the Munich air taxi manufacturer Lilium.

Blomstein has advised the Allianz for Development and Climate Foundation on a procurement procedure for the selection of an asset manager. The foundation conducted a competitive selection procedure. In accordance with its foundation philosophy, it placed a special focus on sustainable investment strategies and the integration of ESG (Environment, Social, Governance) investment criteria.

The new Lexology GTDT: Foreign investment review 2021 has just been published: Roland M. Stein and Leonard von Rummel have contributed the chapter on the German FDI regime.

In the past years, the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) and the World Bank have increased their investigations in Brazil, sanctioning two Brazilian construction companies on grounds of corruption in projects financed by them. In 2020, Andrade Gutierrez, one of the companies involved in Operation Car Wash (codenamed Lava Jato), was prohibited from participating in public procurement projects financed by the IDB and the World Bank until the end of 2022. The sanction was reduced due to a Negotiated Resolution Agreement (NRA) with the IDB. Given that an NRA is conditional on presenting relevant information to the IDB, it is expected that Brazil will remain under the IDB’s scrutiny.

With the draft of the Corporate Liability Act (VerSanG), the Federal Government has implemented its long-cherished plan to introduce corporate sanctions. The background to the amendment is that companies currently have their misconduct only sanctioned as an administrative offence. This means, among other things, that authorities have discretion to decide whether to prosecute such misconduct. In addition, the fines that can be imposed under the Administrative Offences Act are capped at 10 million EUR, irrespective of the size of the company.

BLOMSTEIN has successfully handled two Foreign Direct Investment procedures for GTCR, a leading private equity firm. GTCR has acquired the assets of the TachoSil Fibrin Sealant Patch, a sponge for hemostasis and wound sealing, and the Surgical Specialties Corporation (SSC), which is specialized in high performance surgical sutures and ophthalmic knives. Subsequently, the investor merged SSC and Tachosil into a leading provider of surgical medical products and created the new company Corza Medical.

Ever wondered why consumers pay different prices for the same goods in different EU member states? The European Commission (EC) thinks territorial supply constraints (TSCs) bear much of the blame. Although they have long been a regular topic of antitrust debate, investigations into TSCs have been rare. This is unlikely to stay the case: a recent study into TSCs commissioned by the EC, recent enforcement action, and the pending revision of the regulatory framework show that TSCs have become a policy focus of the EC, and national competition authorities may follow. A just-announced EC investigation into Mondelēz International, one of the world’s largest snacks companies, for alleged breaches of the competition rules through TSCs may be a sign of things to come. We outline why TSCs are in the antitrust spotlight and what companies should expect from competition enforcers in the future.

The new edition of Lexology Getting the Deal Through: Foreign Investment Review has just been published and is now available in print and online. BLOMSTEIN partner Roland M. Stein and associate Leonard von Rummel co-authored the Germany chapter in this LexGTDT series for the third time.