Premier Foods (whose brands include Mr Kipling’s, Ambrosia, Bisto and Oxo) hit the headlines today as suppliers challenge the food producer’s commercial terms. These require lump sum payments to remain on Premier Foods’ approved supplier list – so called “pay to stay” fees. A number of Premier Foods’ 1,000 suppliers...

GSA, a leading provider of student accommodations, creates, manages and finances real estate projects. The acquired Headquarter portfolio includes sites in Munster, Dresden, Darmstadt and Frankfurt. Hereby, the British investor and facility operator enters into the German market and continues its expansion course. A team of Osborne Clarke, led by...

Juniqe has raised EUR 14 million from Highland Capital Partners Europe, Vorwerk Ventures, High-Tech Gründerfonds and Redalphine. The fresh capital will mainly be used to accelerate growth in Europe. The Osborne Clarke team that advised on the financing was led by Partner Nicolas Gabrysch who was assisted by Till-Manuel Saur...

Allgeier SE and US-headquartered Ciber, Inc. combine their activities in the German market for SAP Consulting Services and SAP Managed Services. To this end, Allgeier Enterprise Services AG acquires Ciber´s German companies, namely Ciber AG and Ciber Managed Services GmbH. In addition, French Ciber France SAS, and major parts of...

Competition in rail: what happens now? The Competition and Markets Authority (the “CMA”) published the findings of its ‘policy project’, examining the state of competition in the passenger rail market in Great Britain in July 2015. The rail industry has had six months to digest the CMA’s findings; so too...

As demonstrated by the Commission’s focus on platforms as part of the Digital Single Market initiative , the importance of platforms as gatekeepers to internet services has been a hot topic. We see this reflected in investigations across the EU, covering a range of practices. Restrictions on online sales via...

It has been reported this week that the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) carried out “dawn raids” on three top modelling agencies (Storm Model Management, Premier Model Management and Models 1). The agencies have apparently been accused by some of their customers of colluding to fix prices charged to retailers...

The new Consumer Rights Act (the Act), in force from today, replaces and consolidates three significant pieces of consumer legislation – The Sale of Goods Act 1979, Unfair Terms in Consumer Contracts Regulations 1999 and the Supply of Goods and Services Act 1982. It introduces some new rights relating to...

This month, our international team of authors considers the diverging approach to competition law across Europe. Following last month’s update on hotel rate parity clauses in Germany, we look at the different approaches being taken in Italy and France – and what this means for you when using “most favoured...