By a Law dated 23 December 2016 , the Luxembourg legislator adopted Bill of law 7022 (a) implementing (i) Directive 2014/57/EU on criminal sanctions for market abuse as well as (ii) the Commission Implementing Directive 2015/2392/EU with regard to reporting to competent authorities of actual or potential infringements in relation to the market abuse regulation;
By Decision 2017-E-01 dated 8 March 2017, the Luxembourg Competition Council has accepted commitments offered by two companies operating in the passenger transport market in response to concerns regarding the conformity of their tender for public procurement contracts with competition law.
On April 27, 2017, the Chamber of Deputies passed a law allowing the sale of medicines not subject to prescription via the internet. This text can be considered as an advance, since it takes into account the recent evolutions of society. However, it is necessary to consider whether this law is in conformity with European Union law and in particular the provisions on freedom to provide services.
Uber's model is highly controversial: some hail competition from the services of taxi companies, others consider that the services offered by Uber constitute unfair competition for taxis and a circumvention of the law applicable in social matters.
Following the adoption of the new EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) on 27 April 2016, most organisations began to re-examine their internal processes and procedures in order to ensure compliance with the new requirements before its entry into force in May 2018.
On 7 December 2016, competition law in Luxembourg was considerably strengthened by the entry into force of the law implementing EU Directive 2014/104, which is aimed at assisting victims of anti-competitive practices (cartel or concerted practice, agreement, other anti-competitive arrangement, abuse of a dominant position) in bringing actions for damages before the civil courts. This new law introduces several important provisions which will help victims to more easily establish the fault, i.e. the illegality of the conduct, of an undertaking which has infringed the rules of competition and quantify the harm suffered
The Grand-Duchy is one of the last European countries in which UBER does not offer its services. It will however probably not be the case for much longer. Representatives of the company already approached the Luxembourg Minister of Sustainable Development and Infrastructures. The latter indicated in a parliamentary response (2437) that the Luxembourg legislation may, under certain conditions, enable the offer of some UBER services.
On 26 July 2016, the Luxembourg Competition Council ("Conseil de la Concurrence") issued a decision in which it stressed that a resale price maintenance ("RPM") practice, i.e. an agreement or concerted practice between a supplier and a distributor leading to fixed or minimum prices for end users, constitutes a hard core and "by object" violation of EU and/or Luxembourg competition rules.
On 17 June 2016, the Luxembourg Competition Council adopted a decision in which it asserts, on the basis of Article 5 of the Law of 23 October 2011 on Competition and Article 102 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union, its competence to scrutinise and, as the case may be, sanction transactions between businesses which create or strengthen a dominant position on the relevant market.
On 3 July 2016, the market abuse obligations and prohibitions provided in the updated EU legislation became applicable(1). The new set of legislation is composed at level 1 of a Regulation ("MAR") and of a Directive ("MAD 2").
