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Commercial Awareness Update - April 2019!
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<blockquote data-quote="Bugsy Malone" data-source="post: 10914" data-attributes="member: 201"><p><strong>2. <u>German Court Case Against Google (by [USER=1643]@Moni[/USER])</u></strong></p><p></p><p><strong>The story: </strong></p><p></p><p>On Friday the 12th of April, a German price-comparison portal, Idealo GmBH filed a suit against Google alleging that the company had abused its position as the most dominant search engine by favoring its own price-comparison service in its search results. The suit was submitted to the state court in Berlin and is based on the EU Competition Authority’s 2017 decision to fine Google €2.42 billion for manipulating search results to favour its own comparison-shopping service. Following the EU Competition Authority’s landmark ruling in 2017, Margrethe Vestager, the EU Competition Commissioner at the time, encouraged companies to use the ruling as a basis to seek damages against Google. Idealo, is the first major company to heed Ms Vestager’s call to action and sue Google on the basis of the 2017 ruling.</p><p></p><p>Idealo, is a leading price-comparison service and is majority-owned by publisher, Axel Springer. Idealo filed a suit against Google’s US and European entities and is claiming that Google made it harder for users of its search engine to find links to Idealo, after it started promoting its own price-comparison offering, Google Shopping. As such, Idealo is seeking €500 million in damages from lost revenue. The company’s lawyer said that the potential damages could increase if the judge accepts his request to subpoena data from Google to determine the precise scale and period during which Google committed antitrust violations.</p><p></p><p><strong>Impact on business and law firms:</strong></p><p></p><p>Despite the fact that Google has, “already made a wide range of changes to (their) products to address the commission’s concerns,” Idealo’s suit, if successful, could open the door for other companies, who feel they have suffered damage as a result of Google’s actions, to take legal action. In fact, this is to some extent Idealo’s goal, as they hope that their suit will be a signal to other companies who had previously been wary of taking on the Tech giant.</p><p></p><p>Moreover, many argue that despite Google’s recent efforts, Google’s changes are not making a significant difference for small price-comparison portals. Kelkoo Group, a British price-comparison company, took legal action in the U.K against Google before the 2017 ruling, plans to use evidence cited in the decision in its own litigation against Google. BEUC, a European federation of Consumer Protection Groups, has written to the EU Competition Authority arguing that Google is still not in full compliance with the commission’s ruling.</p><p></p><p>Although it has been two years since the ruling, it appears Google will continue to face challenges regarding the combination of its search engine and price-comparison tool. Whilst, Google appealed the ruling, the EU Commission views the ruling as proof that illegal behaviour took place, thus paving the way for companies to take legal action against the company. Many believed the EU’s ruling had ramifications not only for Google but for all large tech companies as they consider how they design products and services. Google and other tech giants, who have found themselves under close scrutiny in Europe over the past few years, will certainly be concerned about risk of litigation following EU Commission rulings.</p><p></p><p><strong>3. <u>Jet Airways Suspend Domestic and International Flights (by @bugsy)</u></strong></p><p></p><p><strong>The story:</strong></p><p></p><p>Jet Airways, once India’s largest airline, has been forced to suspend all flights after failing to secure emergency funding. It hoped to secure interim funding from its lenders, a consortium of investors led by the State Bank of India but after a 6 hour meeting its request was denied. With no means of purchasing essential commodities to keep its planes in the air, the entire airline is grounded for the foreseeable future.</p><p></p><p><u>Timeline of key events:</u></p><p></p><ul> <li data-xf-list-type="ul"><u>November 2018:</u> Jet Airways faced huge financial losses with debts over $1.2bn.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul"><u>December 2018:</u> Jet Airways was unable to pay employee wages.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul"><u>March 2019</u>: A quarter of the company’s fleet was grounded and the owner, Naresh Goyal, gave up his 51% stake in the company in an effort to raise funds.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul"><u>April 2019:</u> The company’s fuel supplier refused to refuel planes until they were paid. Planes have begun to be seized by other airlines for non-payment of fees.</li> </ul><p><strong>Impact on businesses and law firms:</strong></p><p><strong></strong></p><p>Jet Airways is still hoping to secure investment but that could take a long time. The more time that passes the less attractive it becomes. For example, it was forced to cancel international flights as it was not operating the minimum required number of planes, losing its valuable slots at Heathrow airport.</p><p></p><p>Routes from Mumbai to London and Dubai, and from Delhi to London, Dubai and Singapore have suffered a huge loss (tens of thousands of passenger seats each week) from Jet Airways’ suspension of international flights. Other Indian airlines are rushing to fill this capacity deficit in the country’s aviation sector. Jet Airways’ rivals, which are struggling with limited airport infrastructure, will be looking to make the most of this opportunity by expanding their fleet and leasing newly available planes. The ministry of civil aviation has already formed a committee to temporarily allocate Jet Airways’ vacant slots at airports (a prerequisite to schedule a landing or take-off) to other carriers, even as Jet Airways awaits funds from potential investors to revive operations. Rivals will also have a new talent pool of previous Jet Airways employees such as pilots, cabin crew, technical and airport staff.</p><p></p><p>These measures, however, have so far had limited success in bridging the demand supply gap of Jet Airways prime slots in busy Mumbai and Delhi airports. This has raised airfares at peak summer travel season. For example, at the beginning of April 2019, fares were 15% higher compared to last year, and last minute bookings are 18% higher year-on-year, according to online travel portal Cleartrip. This could be beneficial for airline profits or could lead to decreased demand from passengers not willing to pay higher fares.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Bugsy Malone, post: 10914, member: 201"] [B]2. [U]German Court Case Against Google (by [USER=1643]@Moni[/USER])[/U][/B] [B]The story: [/B] On Friday the 12th of April, a German price-comparison portal, Idealo GmBH filed a suit against Google alleging that the company had abused its position as the most dominant search engine by favoring its own price-comparison service in its search results. The suit was submitted to the state court in Berlin and is based on the EU Competition Authority’s 2017 decision to fine Google €2.42 billion for manipulating search results to favour its own comparison-shopping service. Following the EU Competition Authority’s landmark ruling in 2017, Margrethe Vestager, the EU Competition Commissioner at the time, encouraged companies to use the ruling as a basis to seek damages against Google. Idealo, is the first major company to heed Ms Vestager’s call to action and sue Google on the basis of the 2017 ruling. Idealo, is a leading price-comparison service and is majority-owned by publisher, Axel Springer. Idealo filed a suit against Google’s US and European entities and is claiming that Google made it harder for users of its search engine to find links to Idealo, after it started promoting its own price-comparison offering, Google Shopping. As such, Idealo is seeking €500 million in damages from lost revenue. The company’s lawyer said that the potential damages could increase if the judge accepts his request to subpoena data from Google to determine the precise scale and period during which Google committed antitrust violations. [B]Impact on business and law firms:[/B] Despite the fact that Google has, “already made a wide range of changes to (their) products to address the commission’s concerns,” Idealo’s suit, if successful, could open the door for other companies, who feel they have suffered damage as a result of Google’s actions, to take legal action. In fact, this is to some extent Idealo’s goal, as they hope that their suit will be a signal to other companies who had previously been wary of taking on the Tech giant. Moreover, many argue that despite Google’s recent efforts, Google’s changes are not making a significant difference for small price-comparison portals. Kelkoo Group, a British price-comparison company, took legal action in the U.K against Google before the 2017 ruling, plans to use evidence cited in the decision in its own litigation against Google. BEUC, a European federation of Consumer Protection Groups, has written to the EU Competition Authority arguing that Google is still not in full compliance with the commission’s ruling. Although it has been two years since the ruling, it appears Google will continue to face challenges regarding the combination of its search engine and price-comparison tool. Whilst, Google appealed the ruling, the EU Commission views the ruling as proof that illegal behaviour took place, thus paving the way for companies to take legal action against the company. Many believed the EU’s ruling had ramifications not only for Google but for all large tech companies as they consider how they design products and services. Google and other tech giants, who have found themselves under close scrutiny in Europe over the past few years, will certainly be concerned about risk of litigation following EU Commission rulings. [B]3. [U]Jet Airways Suspend Domestic and International Flights (by @bugsy)[/U][/B] [B]The story:[/B] Jet Airways, once India’s largest airline, has been forced to suspend all flights after failing to secure emergency funding. It hoped to secure interim funding from its lenders, a consortium of investors led by the State Bank of India but after a 6 hour meeting its request was denied. With no means of purchasing essential commodities to keep its planes in the air, the entire airline is grounded for the foreseeable future. [U]Timeline of key events:[/U] [LIST] [*][U]November 2018:[/U] Jet Airways faced huge financial losses with debts over $1.2bn. [*][U]December 2018:[/U] Jet Airways was unable to pay employee wages. [*][U]March 2019[/U]: A quarter of the company’s fleet was grounded and the owner, Naresh Goyal, gave up his 51% stake in the company in an effort to raise funds. [*][U]April 2019:[/U] The company’s fuel supplier refused to refuel planes until they were paid. Planes have begun to be seized by other airlines for non-payment of fees. [/LIST] [B]Impact on businesses and law firms: [/B] Jet Airways is still hoping to secure investment but that could take a long time. The more time that passes the less attractive it becomes. For example, it was forced to cancel international flights as it was not operating the minimum required number of planes, losing its valuable slots at Heathrow airport. Routes from Mumbai to London and Dubai, and from Delhi to London, Dubai and Singapore have suffered a huge loss (tens of thousands of passenger seats each week) from Jet Airways’ suspension of international flights. Other Indian airlines are rushing to fill this capacity deficit in the country’s aviation sector. Jet Airways’ rivals, which are struggling with limited airport infrastructure, will be looking to make the most of this opportunity by expanding their fleet and leasing newly available planes. The ministry of civil aviation has already formed a committee to temporarily allocate Jet Airways’ vacant slots at airports (a prerequisite to schedule a landing or take-off) to other carriers, even as Jet Airways awaits funds from potential investors to revive operations. Rivals will also have a new talent pool of previous Jet Airways employees such as pilots, cabin crew, technical and airport staff. These measures, however, have so far had limited success in bridging the demand supply gap of Jet Airways prime slots in busy Mumbai and Delhi airports. This has raised airfares at peak summer travel season. For example, at the beginning of April 2019, fares were 15% higher compared to last year, and last minute bookings are 18% higher year-on-year, according to online travel portal Cleartrip. This could be beneficial for airline profits or could lead to decreased demand from passengers not willing to pay higher fares. [/QUOTE]
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