BLOMSTEIN represents Fastned in review proceedings concerning the award of contracts for the construction, maintenance and operation of fast charging stations at serviced rest stops on the German federal highways. The contract had been awarded to companies of the Tank & Rast Group by the Autobahn GmbH of the German Government without conducting a competitive public procurement procedure.

Over recent months, one of the most highly debated issues in the field of international trade law has been the expected introduction of a novel instrument of trade restrictions – the so-called Outbound Investment Screening. In Berlin, Brussels and Washington DC, governments and legislators are currently engaged in discussions over the exact nature of the tool, which seeks to both monitor and – under certain circumstances – restrict investments by Western companies in third countries (in particular China). While reports suggest that a Presidential executive order on this subject is imminent in the US, the EU has now equally taken a further step to clarify its intentions through a newly published position paper, which forms part of the new “European Economic Security Strategy”. The document entitled An EU approach to enhance economic security begins to illustrate how the European Commission intends to conceptualise the instrument for the EU single market, with European Commission representatives announcing concrete proposals for the end of the year. The position paper’s contents are also likely to have significant influence on the ongoing reform attempts by the German Ministry for Economic Affairs and Climate Action.

Artificial Intelligence (AI) is advancing so quickly that experts around the world are warning against the risks of unregulated deployment. Meanwhile, the European Commission (Commission) is trying to catch up by accelerating its plans to regulate AI. After publishing its first draft of an AI Act Proposal in April 2021, the Council adopted its common position (General Approach) on 6 December 2022. Since then, the Proposal has made great strides: the committee work in the European Parliament was completed on 11 May 2023, and the Proposal was adopted already a month later with a clear majority: 499 votes in favor, 28 against and 93 abstentions. Next up will be trialogue negotiations between the European Parliament, European Commission and the Council. If this pace is maintained, the AI Act could be passed before the end of the year, which would make it the world’s first comprehensive AI law.

Sustainability and competition law has been one of the hottest topics among competition authorities and regulators in recent years. The German Federal Cartel Office (FCO) has always stressed that it is open to give informal guidance on sustainability initiatives. Yesterday, it has proven that it takes this approach seriously and does not stand in the way of sustainability initiatives. It has published a press release that it currently sees no reason for a more detailed examination of the German Initiative on Sustainable Cocoa “Forum Nachhaltiger Kakao e.V.” (Kakaoforum). According to the FCO, there have been no indications that the initiative would incur a clear risk of a restraint of competition. The Kakaoforum is a joint initiative made up of representatives of the public sector, companies in the cocoa and chocolate industry, a large part of the German food retail trade and international NGOs.

BLOMSTEIN assists Goodwin with regard to the foreign direct investment law aspects of Summit Partners’ sale of shares in ELATEC group. The shares will be acquired by SGT German Private Equity, a subsidiary of the renowned private equity firm SGT Capital. With a transaction value estimated at approximately EUR 400 million, the deal is expected to close later this year, pending the fulfillment of customary regulatory approvals.

It has long been recognised that financial support in favour of football clubs can distort fair competition. A widespread concern is that investors behind the big European clubs like Manchester City, Paris Saint Germain, or Chelsea FC reign over professional football with their money at will. In light of this, the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) established the Financial Fair Play (FFP) rules. With the Foreign Subsidies Regulation, which entered into force in January 2023, there may be another instrument to address financial advantages to football clubs perceived as unfair if the investment is attributable to a government outside the EU.

On 1 June 2023, the European Commission finally adopted its revised Horizontal Block Exemption Regulations on Research and Development (R&D) and Specialisation agreements, which are accompanied by the revised Horizontal Guidelines (2023 Horizontal Guidelines).

Finding the right balance between strengthening cooperation pursuing sustainability goals on the one side and ensuring compliance with competition law on the other has been a major topic of competition authorities and regulators in recent years (see our briefings of 26 January 2022 and 7 February 2021). The competition community is eagerly awaiting the European Commission’s second draft of the horizontal guidelines. Meanwhile, the German FCO announced on Thursday that the animal welfare initiative “Initiative Tierwohl” will abolish the compulsory premium because of competition law concerns.

Generative Artificial Intelligence (AI), which can be prompted to create wholly novel content, is a hot topic all around, from news and social media to policymakers and businesses. Image-generating AI models that create (digital) paintings inspired by van Gogh or other famous artists in seconds, or text-generating AI models like ChatGPT that pass university exams with ease are fascinating the internet community. Fact is that many generative AI-based applications have been made available to the public in the last months, from machine translations to image recognition and music generation. Yet, this is just the beginning of a ground-breaking technology, which will sooner than later be deployed in a wide spectrum of activities and become a critical infrastructure for many businesses.

On 18 April, the European Parliament adopted the CBAM, an unprecedented carbon border adjustment charge, which takes into account the greenhouse gas emissions embedded in imported goods of emissions-intensive sectors with a high risk of so-called “carbon leakage”. Carbon leakage takes place when, for reasons of costs related to climate policies in the EU, businesses transfer their production plants to other countries outside the bloc with less costly climate policies (see our briefing from July 2021). The initiative is part of the 2030 Climate and Energy “Fit for 55” legislative package under the European Green Deal, an ambitious plan to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by at least 55% until 2030 compared to the levels of 1990.