Abstract

The use of interim measures seemed destined to sporadic appearances on the European antitrust scene. By contrast, over the recent months it returned to the forefront. In France, the Paris Court of Appeal held that Google’s new policy on snippets could constitute an unfair commercial term and a discriminatory practice which could cause serious and immediate damage to the whole sector. This case provides interesting food for thoughts not only on the interventionist approach embraced by some antitrust authorities and national courts in digital markets, but also on how interim measures could prove to be a winning enforcement tool, particularly in those areas where relevant conducts do not exacerbate completely new or unknown antitrust issues, but whose negative effects on competitive dynamics could materialize faster and much more brutally.