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Legal Publications

Discover thought leadership and legal insights by our legal experts from across CMS. 
In our Expert Guides, written by CMS lawyers from across the jurisdictions where we operate, we provide you with in-depth legal research and insights that can be read both online and offline. 
You can also find Law-Now articles with focused legal analysis, commentary and insights to help you anticipate future challenges and much more.


Expertise
24/10/2023
The Dominance and Monopolies Review 11 | Austria
Eleventh Edition
27/03/2023
The Private Competition Enforcement Review I Austria Chapter
16th Edition
10/03/2022
The Private Competition Enforcement Review I Austria Chapter
Fifteenth Edition
11/11/2021
CMS State Aid Group
CMS has a dedicated team of legal specialists to advise on State aid-related matters. Our State aid specialist lawyers take a thorough approach to legal detail and can also stand back and take a wider...
14/04/2021
The Private Competition enforcement Review I Fourteenth Edition
Private antitrust litigation in Austria has substantially increased in recent years. To a large extent, this growth can be attributed to an increase of cartel court decisions imposing fines against cartel members based on intensified enforcement activity of the Austrian Federal Competition Authority (FCA) and the Austrian Federal Cartel Prosecutor (with the decision in the Elevators and Escalators cartel case being the show-starter). On the basis of these decisions finding violations of antitrust law, the Austrian Supreme Court (OGH) in several cases has affirmed the possibility of claims for damages for directly damaged parties as well as for indirectly damaged parties, in­clud­ing cases where damages were allegedly caused by cartel outsiders (umbrella pricing). The complete "The Private Competition enforcement Review" is available via download.
19/03/2021
Unfair trading practices in the agricultural and food supply chain
Companies acting in the food supply chain for 2021 should revise their supply agreements and harmonise their business practices with the new national laws implementing Directive (EU) 2019/633 on unfair trading practices in B2B relationships in the agricultural and food supply chain. The unfair trading practices (so-called UTPs) scheme must be transposed to national legislations by 1 May 2021. WHAT? The UTPs scheme seeks to combat B2B practices in the agricultural and food supply chain that grossly deviate from good commercial conduct, are contrary to good faith and fair dealing, and are unilaterally imposed by one trading partner on another. In short, the intention of the rules is to shield agricultural producers or any natural or legal person selling agricultural and food products from UTPs. The Directive envisages that national laws will appoint competent authorities to enforce the UTP rules. WHO? The rules are not automatically applicable to all supplier-buyer relationships. The rules apply when there is a significant imbalance in negotiation power, which is assessed by comparing the annual turnovers of the parties. HOW? Precautionary measures for determining business relationship conditions must be applied since national laws have a wide discretion in defining the UTPs, provided that at least those specified in the Directive are included. The list of UTPs is divided into practices that are always forbidden (e.g., payment periods longer than 30 or 60 days (depending on the type of products), unilaterally changing certain terms of a supply agreement, etc.) and those forbidden depending on the circumstances (e.g., requiring the supplier to bear the costs of discounts or advertising, or to accept back unsold products without the obligation of the buyer to pay for them or for their disposal).
27/02/2020
Practical Interfaces between EU State Aid Law and Public Procurement Law
Privatizations and PPP projects are essential parts of state aid law, each of which is also closely related to the principles and standards of public procurement law. For each type of project, it is necessary...
27/02/2020
Practical Interfaces Between EU State Aid Law and Public Procurement Law
Awarding contracts for providing services in the general economic interest involves both public procurement law and state aid law. For this reason, it is necessary to examine which types of procedure...
21/02/2020
Data protection vs. competition law: Round 1
The question of whether competitors or associations can warn of GDPR infringements on the basis of competition law is now a matter for the courts in numerous countries. In Austria, the Supreme Court recently...
24/09/2019
The Merger Control Review I Tenth Edition
The 10th edition of the Merger Control Review, edited by Ilene Knable Gotts of Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz is now available. It provides an overview of the process in 32 jurisdictions, as well as a...
22/08/2019
The Dominance and Monopolies Review I Seventh Edition
The seventh edition of The Dominance and Monopolies Review provides a wel­come over­view for busy practitioners and businesses who need an accessible and eas­ily un­der­stand­able summary of global abuse...
19/08/2019
Big data analytics means big bucks for esports
Big data analytics is vital for esports today and in the future. The esports community started pro­fes­sion­al­ising its passion some time ago, and has developed a serious industry which has prospered in...