The European Court of Justice (ECJ) gave judgment on 29 April on case C- 277/00, which challenged the European Commission’s decision that Germany should recover aid granted to companies SMI and SiMI. Although the judgment confirms the Commission’s finding of illegal aid, it determines that the Commission has violated fundamental principles of state aid recovery.

The FCO’s decision underlines the importance the FCO places on competition in the market for waste paper disposal services. By strictly applying section 21(1) and (2) ACR, the FCO has made it clear that it will protect this competition and prevent a return to the concentration of demand in the hands of the municipalities, which would jeopardise the liberalisation already attained. Nevertheless, in contrast to earlier boycott cases in this market, the FCO has limited its decision to a cease and desist order without imposing any fines-a decision that can only be explained by the fact that in the present case the addressee of such fines would not have been an ordinary undertaking but a municipality.

Following on from the Supreme Court’s Walmart decision, this FCO decision now provides further guidance on the application of Section 20 (4) ARC to sale below cost price. In light of the FCO’s August 2003 notice on sales below cost price and these recent cases, the FCO is now unlikely to continue to grant lenient treatment because of the novelty of the relevant rules.

Europe's energy regulators have expressed concern over the possible merger of E.ON and Ruhrgas, two major German power companies.

Continuing its European expansion, US firm McDermott Will & Emery has opened an office in Düsseldorf. Four partners – Thomas Hauss, Konstantin Günther, Alexander Hirsch and Völker Teigelköotter, all formerly at the firm of Menold & Aulinger – form the core of the new office.

The expansion of Ashurst Morris Crisp's competition group continues apace. The firm has now secured the services of a German competition specialist, Ute Zinsmeister. She joined the partnership officially on September 1.

The Ball Corporation has announced its intention to buy Schmalbach-Lubeca, the German drinks-can manufacturer

German-based media group Bertelsmann (BMG) has agreed to buy the US music company Zomba in a deal worth US$3 billion.

Duales System, a German-based recycling company, has become the first company to apply for exemption from German cartel law as allowed by a change in German law in 1999

The concept of ministerial authorisation is rarely invoked and is controversial. Since the introduction of merger control in Germany in 1973, a ministerial authorisation has been granted only in seven cases, and five further applications have been dismissed. The ministerial authorisation in the E.ON/Ruhrgas case was the first to be issued by the Ministry since 1989 and is the first authorisation ever to be challenged in court by third parties. Moreover, the E.ON/Ruhrgas case evidences an increased preparedness of interested third parties to attack mergers of competitors by challenging formal clearance decisions and ministerial authorisations in court and to apply for injunctions in order to prevent the merging parties from implementing their transaction.Tilman Siebert Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer Berlin