Challenge

Alber & Geiger was approached by a US chemical company from South Carolina regarding the EU Renewable Energy Directive. The client was increasingly concerned about the diversion of tall oil away from the use in the chemicals sector towards energy production in transport. Tall oil being a pine tree residue from the paper mills is used in both these sectors. The Renewable Energy Directive provided special quotas and incentives for the use of tall oil as a feedstock in transportation fuels leading to price increases and creating distortions in the chemical sector, where tall oil was being used as a replacement for crude oil.

Strategy

Alber & Geiger pushed for amendments that requested to change the Renewable Energy Directive in the sense that it would remove tall oil from the positive list that was benefiting from the EU incentives. We worked with the EU Institutions to also apply the so called cascading use principle to tall oil, meaning that any recycled substance should be used as a raw material rather than for fuel purposes. We further engaged with key lawmakers and select Member States to garner support during the legislative process.

Results

We brought together other industry players and leading associations to form a strong coalition of like-minded players to show that the issue was beyond one single company. Through our engagement we made sure that the cascading use principle is now in the language of the Renewable Energy Directive.

Challenge

Stanleybet launched the Fair Play For Sports Betting campaign, calling for fair access to all European markets for all EU-based sports betting operators. However, it was hampered by monopolistic Romanian gambling laws, which prevented it from bringing the full benefits of its cross border business model to the country. The challenge was to get the post-Communist Romanian sports law infrastructure in line with EU law.

Strategy

The strategy was based on the landmark Gambelli judgement. In that court case, our Chairman had been Attorney General. His Opinion had established an important framework for determining the validity on limitations to cross border gambling. Concurrently, our strategy contextualized our inter-institutional communication according the Romanian sports law infrastructure. It utilized the fact that Stanleybet had based its cross border business model on the Gambelli and Placanica rulings.

Results

We were able to demonstrate to the European Commission that Stanleybet was a model of the type of economic activity, which it had a duty to protect. Thanks to our efforts, the EU Commission forced the Romanian state to comply with these very recent extensions to EU competence. Stanleybet now has a lucrative and successful operation in Romania, which benefits consumers.

Challenge

Dynamic currency conversion (DCC) is a currency exchange service that enables customers to pay in their home currency or in local currency according to their choice. It is offered at ATMs and credit card transactions in shops. The service providers had raised concerns over the card scheme behavior of credit card companies aimed at limiting competition in currency conversion services across several jurisdictions, including in the European Union.

They contacted Alber & Geiger to provide political support with the European Commission’s Directorate General for Competition on their repeated complaints over card schemes’ excessive rules, fees and compliance regimes. Moreover, the companies relied on Alber & Geiger to help them identify political avenues to raise their concerns in the European Union, via regulatory and legislative paths, in parallel to their competition channel.

Strategy

From the outset, we created a strategy that focused on three works streams: political support into the complaint with DG Comp, advocacy with lawmakers and officials to raise awareness of DCC and highlight concerns against credit card schemes, and finally, to build support with merchant, consumer and other sectorial associations that are affected by currency exchange services. 

Results

Our team was able to raise awareness of the situation on currency exchange services, informing officials and politicians on the differences between the model offered by the credit cards, and that offered by the DCC providers, putting the emphasis on the DCC currency exchange service that brings more transparency and consumer choice. Simultaneously, through regular exchanges with lawmakers we have laid the foundation for support for our amendments on the ongoing EU legislation on the cross border payment regulation and the payment service directive. Finally, we managed to shift alliances in support of the issues highlighted by DCC providers.