Thoughts on today’s judgments in Lundbeck and Slovak Telekom: expected and valuable clarifications for the future

By: Pablo Ibañez Colomo (Chilling Competition)

The Court of Justice has delivered an important set of judgments in the Slovak Telekom and Lundbeck cases (see in particular here and here). As widely anticipated, all appeals have been dismissed. This fact does not deprive the cases of interest, which always lied in the points of principle at stake in them.

The Slovak Telekom case raised issues relating to the scope of Bronner and the indispensability condition. The Court confirms that Bronner is alive and well and defines the scope of the ruling in a manner that is consistent with its spirit and logic (today’s judgments are very much in line with the Advocate General’s Opinion, which we discussed here). Crucially, the judgment also provides a valuable template for the evaluation of cases in digital markets.

The issues raised in Lundbeck, in turn, concerned the notion of restriction by object. It was an occasion to test the meaning of the ‘robust and reliable experience’ test laid down in Budapest Bank. Unsurprisingly, the Court concludes that the lack of experience in pay-for-delay cases is of no assistance to avoid a finding of a ‘by object’ infringement. As I explained here, cartel-like conduct is cartel-like conduct, irrespective of whether it is disguised as a pay-for-delay arrangement. And we have decades, if not centuries, of ‘robust and reliable’ experience concerning cartels and analogous practices.

In addition, the Court dismisses, in Lundbeck, the interpretation of the counterfactual advanced by the appellants. Again, this is hardly surprising. I explained in this post why the appellants’ understanding of the notion was not obvious to reconcile with the case law and why, in all likelihood, it would be rejected by the Court (in the same way it was rejected by AG Kokott)…

CONTINUE READING…