Antitrust Enforcement

Brussels Antitrust Seminar Demonstrates Shifting European Landscape For Competition Enforcement In Wake Of ECJ MasterCard Judgment

A View from Constantine Cannon’s London Office By Irene Fraile and Richard Pike The recent judgment by the European Court of Justice (“ECJ”) in the MasterCard case is sparking a lively debate about how antitrust enforcement of payment system regimes should evolve in the European Union, as evidenced by an antitrust seminar co-sponsored by Constantine Cannon in Brussels on Monday. The ECJ’s MasterCard...

Google’s Settlement Offer Sparks European Debate

A View from Constantine Cannon’s London Office By James Ashe-Taylor and Ana Rojo Prada

Debate continues over Google’s settlement offer in search and advertising investigation as European Commission indicates that more is needed.

Google and Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp have traded blows publicly following comments by the European Commission indicating that it would reopen its antitrust investigation into...

Regulators Prescribing Higher Dose Of Pharmaceutical Antitrust Enforcement

By Ankur Kapoor Antitrust enforcers returned to their offices after Labor Day, refreshed and ready to tackle what they view to be anticompetitive practices by pharmaceutical companies to delay entry of lower-priced generic drugs. In addition to recent enforcement efforts by antitrust regulators, two federal courts have issued opinions supporting the theory underlying the enforcers’ new efforts to police...

European Commission Slaps Smart Card Chips Cartel With Fines

A View from Constantine Cannon’s London Office By Irene Fraile The European Commission has imposed fines totaling 138 million euros on smart card chips producers Infineon, Philips and Samsung for breaching European Union antitrust laws that prohibit cartels. According to the Commission, from September 2003 to September 2005, the companies engaged in a cartel to restrain competition relating to the smart...

MFNs Becoming A Battleground In FCC’s Review Of Comcast/Time Warner Deal

By Allison F. Sheedy The biggest regulatory review of the year—the Federal Communications Commission’s examination of Comcast Corp.’s proposed acquisition of Time Warner, Inc.—has taken an interesting foray into analyzing competitive tactics, with the FCC’s invitation to media companies to confidentially raise concerns about Comcast’s use of most favored nation (“MFN”) provisions in its contracts to...

China Ramps Up Antitrust Enforcement With Second Round Of Raids Of Microsoft Today 

Why you should take notice if you do business in China By Aymeric Dumas-Eymard Almost six years to the day after China began enforcing its Antimonopoly Law (“AML”), China’s antitrust authorities are marking the anniversary with a bang as they followed up last week’s raids of U.S. software giant Microsoft with a second round of raids today. China’s antitrust regulator the State Administration for...

EU General Court Upholds Record 1.06 Billion Euro Antitrust Fine Against Intel

A View from Constantine Cannon’s London Office By Irene Fraile The General Court of the European Union has dismissed Intel’s appeal of the European Commission´s decision fining the computer chip manufacturer a record 1.06 billion euros for breaching EU competition law. The European Commission imposed the fine on Intel in May 2009, after finding that Intel abused its dominant position in the x86 CPU...

Container Shipping Companies Seek To Steer Clear Of European Antitrust Shoals

A View from Constantine Cannon’s London Office By Natalia Mikolajczyk and Richard Pike Major container shipping companies are attempting to resolve the European Commission’s antitrust probe into their practice of publicly announcing price increases. The two biggest players in the container shipping market, A.P. Moeller-Maersk A/S and Mediterranean Shipping Company, hope to end the proceedings without...

European Commissioner Rebuffs German CEO’s Criticisms Of Google Search Engine Settlement

A View from Constantine Cannon’s London Office By Michael Petrides The European Commission’s Competition Commissioner, Joaquin Almunia, is strongly defending the EC from charges that its proposed settlement with Google concerning search engine practices would permit Google to expand its dominant market position. Commissioner Alumina’s defense of the proposed settlement joins a debate with Matthias...

DOJ And FTC Will Discuss Whether Bundled Discounts Are A Bundle Of Antitrust Trouble Or A Bundle Of Joy For Consumers

By Ankur Kapoor[1] The Federal Trade Commission (“FTC”) and the Antitrust Division of the U.S. Department of Justice will attempt to unravel the antitrust pros and cons of bundled discounts and other conditional-pricing practices in a one-day public workshop on June 23, 2014. Bundled discounts, which are discounts offered for the purchase of a “bundle” of goods or services, exist in many markets.  The...