The Antitrust Week in Review

Here are some of the developments in antitrust news this past week that we found interesting and are following.

Staples and Office Depot Say a Merger Will Keep Them Competitive.  Staples and Office Depot are hoping to convince antitrust regulators that their $6.3 billion merger should be approved because the office supply world’s a different place from what it was in 1997, when their previous attempt to combine was blocked by the FTC.  The two retailers are arguing that the past 18 years has seen the business selling office supplies become more competitive due to efforts by rivals such as Walmart, Target and Amazon.

Last Swing in Court by San Jose to Get Oakland A’s to City.  The San Jose City Council has voted to seek Supreme Court review of the decision by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit that baseball’s antitrust exemption bars San Jose’s lawsuit that aims to stop Major League Baseball from blocking the Oakland Athletics’ proposed move to the city.  The Ninth Circuit’s reluctant application of the anachronistic—yet still followed—baseball antitrust exemption was examined by this blog last month.

Assistant Attorney General Bill Baer Delivers Remarks at the Global Competition Review Fourth Annual Antitrust Law Leaders Forum.  Bill Baer, the top antitrust enforcer at the U.S. Department of Justice, gave a speech warning that merging companies had better be prepared to make meaningful concessions designed to boost competition, or risk being sued by the DOJ’s Antitrust Division. The antitrust enforcer discussed the concessions that the parties had to concede in order to win regulatory approval of the $11 billion American Airlines-US Airways merger, and Anheuser-Busch InBev’s $20 billion acquisition of Grupo Modelo.

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