Antitrust Enforcement

European Union On Verge Of Swinging Class Action Hammer

While the antitrust class action is historically an American enforcement tool, the European Union is on the verge of pressing this powerful hammer into the hands of its member states. Under a draft EU Directive, state bodies and nonprofit organizations appointed by national governments would be able to bring class actions in national courts against companies that fix prices or abuse their dominant market share. ...

Review Of 1992 Merger Guidelines Is A Once-In-A-Generation Opportunity

Antitrust practitioners that pass on the upcoming opportunity to comment on revising the 1992 Merger Guidelines will be missing an opportunity that comes once in a generation. For 17 years now, the Horizontal Merger Guidelines jointly developed by the U.S. Department of Justice and Federal Trade Commission have been one of a few doctrinal pillars of the faith among antitrust practitioners, most notably with respect...

Will The Microsoft-Yahoo Partnership Result In U.S. v. Microsoft Redux?

Antitrust enforcers may be seeing a lot of their old friends at Microsoft thanks to the Internet search deal the computer giant has reached with Yahoo!  As Constantine Cannon’s Matt Cantor discusses in his recent article, "Microsoft-Yahoo! 'Partnership' Is Anti-Competitive", the deal raises substantial antitrust issues that may doom it. It appears that Microsoft and Yahoo!'s proposed "partnership," which...

For Antitrust Enforcers, Causation Can Be The Matrix

“You see there is only one constant.  One universal.  It is the only real truth.  Causality.  Action, reaction.  Cause and effect.” -- The Merovingian in The Matrix Reloaded Characters in science fiction films such as The Matrix series and The Time Traveler’s Wife have struggled with life-or-death issues of causation.  As highlighted by recent decisions of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District...

Antitrust & Election Systems Collide: The Contested ES&S/Diebold Merger

In the 2000 Presidential election, Americans became painfully aware of the dirty secret of their democracy -- that the integrity of our elections depends on a messy patchwork of voting machines that use disparate and often archaic systems.  Since then, efforts have been made to improve and standardize the system but the weaknesses of the system remain and are particularly apparent in contested close elections.  Now...

A Warning For Corporate Parents In The EU’s Akzo Nobel Case

Being a parent means great responsibilities – especially if you’re a corporate parent with subsidiaries active in the European Union.  As a result of the European Commission’s Akzo Nobel case, such corporate parents now face greater antitrust liability for the conduct of their 100%-owned subsidiaries. On September 10, 2009, the European Court of Justice dismissed Akzo Nobel’s appeal of a 2007 judgment of...

Supreme Court: Resale Price Maintenance No Longer Per Se Illegal; States: Not So Fast

The Supreme Court’s 2007 decision in Leegin Creative Leather Products, Inc. v. PSKS, Inc., 551 U.S. 877, overruled the per se rule applying to resale price maintenance and replaced it with a rule of reason analysis.  Nevertheless, 13 states still forbid resale price maintenance, and the adherence of another eight states to federal precedent remains an open question. Moreover, 37 states filed an amici curiae brief...