Significant and wide-ranging new powers of investigation, intervention and enforcement are proposed to be given to the Irish Competition and Consumer Protection Commission (CCPC), under the Competition (Amendment) Act 2022.
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A&L Goodbody's Dr Vincent Power writes why the COVID-19/Coronavirus crisis demonstrates why an international convention is needed to deal with various aspects of shipping (including the repatriation of crew and passengers) in the event of another pandemic or epidemic.
COVID-19In this briefing, the key features of Ireland's new Simplified Merger Notification Procedure announced by the Competition and Consumer Protection Commission (CCPC) on 7 May 2020 are explained.
EU, Competition & Procurement
It is lawful to lobby in Ireland. However, certain lobbying exercises must be disclosed in the lobbying register on www.lobbying.ie within certain statutory timelines otherwise businesses could be penalised or prosecuted.
COVID-19
In life, it often happens that when someone shares an issue with a friend, they find that "the problem shared is a problem halved". That is a good outcome.
COVID-19
In the current information overload, it is difficult to keep track of all that is emerging from the EU on COVID-19. So here are four links that you could usefully read:
COVID-19
Brexit seemed the most difficult issue facing the UK and the European Union until both sides encountered the "life or death" COVID-19 crisis.
Brexit
The speed of developments in regard to the COVID-19 crisis is typified by the fact that the European Commission's State Aid Temporary Framework to support the economy (the "Temporary Framework") which was adopted on 19 March 2020 had to be amended and extended on 3 April 2020.
COVID-19
Consumer protection law in Ireland is mainly enforced by the Competition and Consumer Protection Commission (CCPC). On 2 April 2020, the CCPC issued an alert entitled "COVID-19 Business Reminder – Payment Methods".
COVID-19
Public bodies across the globe urgently require essential goods and services to combat the COVID-19 outbreak. The European Commission has published helpful guidance which acknowledges that direct award of contracts to suppliers without tender competitions may be justified at this time.
COVID-19
The European Union has faced various tests in recent years. COVID-19 is testing the EU's responses in both new and well-tried ways. It is useful to take an overview of some of the EU's responses:
COVID-19
The European Commission has found a €200m Irish scheme (the Irish Scheme) to support companies affected by the COVID-19 outbreak to be in conformity with the EU's State aid rules. This is consistent with a number of other recent State aid notifications by other Member States (such as Germany, France, UK and Spain) to the European Commission in the context of the COVID-19 outbreak.
COVID-19
On 25 March 2020, Ireland's Competition and Consumer Protection Commission (CCPC) published on its website the European Competition Network's (ECN) joint statement on the relationship between the COVID-19 crisis and competition law.
COVID-19
