Acting Antitrust Chief Pozen Plans to Step Down in April
Less than six months after her appointment as Acting Assistant Attorney General in charge of the Department of Justice Antitrust Division, Sharis A. Pozen has announced her resignation, effective as of April 30, 2012. Late yesterday, the Justice Department issued a statement announcing the departure.
There was no word on who would replace Pozen. However, there is speculation in the media that Bill Baer, head of the antitrust group at the Washington, D.C. office of Arnold & Porter, LLP. might be on the short-list of candidates. Baer has held a number of high-level positions at the Federal Trade Commission, including director of the FTC’s Bureau of Competition.
The current deputy assistant a [...]
Google’s Integration of Social Content in Search is a Good Development for Consumers
In the past six months since Google’s public disclosure of its Federal Trade Commission (FTC) antitrust investigation, much of the debate around the issue has been focused on the evolution of search–how it has changed over the past decade, how information is presented to users, and where information comes from to provide users with the very best and most useful search results. As we all well know, search engines like Google have become an incredibly powerful tool and are hardly recognizable from their old format of traditional “ten blue links.”
Today, search is smarter and more dynamic–rich with real-time content, news, images, maps and reviews. Search no longer provides users a simple [...]
A Look Back at the Enforcement Efforts of the Federal Antitrust Agencies in 2011
Having filed over 100 cases in the last 12 months, the Department of Justice Antitrust Division was especially active in 2011. The vast majority of those cases were criminal matters; however, 2011 will most likely be remembered for the Antitrust Division’s merger enforcement efforts.
The Antitrust Division reviewed a number of mega-mergers in 2011. While the most of merger filings were approved by the Justice Department without challenge or with conditions in a consent decree, there were notable court battles.
Among the most significant of these was the federal/state challenge to AT&T’s proposed $39 billion acquisition of T-Mobile USA Inc. from Deutsche Telekom. The parties ultimately ab [...]
U.S. Justice Department Conditionally Approves Combination of Stock Exchange Groups, European Review Still Pending
The prospects for the merger of Deutsche Börse AG and NYSE Euronext are looking a little brighter, since the U.S. Department of Justice Antitrust Division conditionally approved the transaction yesterday.
U.S. antitrust approval is a major hurdle; however, the combination of the two leading stock exchange groups, which was announced in February, still requires clearance by the European Commission (EC).
Although the Antitrust Division settlement would only resolve concerns over the merger’s impact on U.S. markets, it indicates that the parties are willing to make concessions to get the deal done. It is a positive sign for a deal that continues to evolve in an effort to satisfy EC competiti [...]
Innovation’s Cold War
As tech companies prepare for the holiday season retail wars, touting products with cutting-edge technologies, a costly war is unfolding in corporate America: a war for patents and, more importantly, an arms race to seek protection from frivolous patent-infringement lawsuits.
Because of weaknesses in our patent system, companies have started using patents strategically, threatening litigation to block competitors’ sales and stall the development of new products. These lawsuits cost millions to fend off — increasing costs of devices to consumers and dampening innovation. And the only way to fend off these suits is to wield a significant patent portfolio of one’s own, thereby creating the [...]
Potash Potash Potash!!!!! En Banc Review Is in the Hizz-ouse, Y’all!
Something striking occurred in the Seventh Circuit this year. In two different, massive antitrust class actions, in the space of about nine months, panels of that court applied the Twombly-Iqbal pleading formula to reach opposite conclusions, even though both cases involved very similar fact allegations and the same procedural posture. Both cases also involved the quite rare interlocutory review of denial of motions to dismiss—such review is almost never granted except where defendant claims some special immunity from suit [Mitchell v. Forsyth, 472 U.S. 511 (1985)]. Granting two such orders so close in time is no doubt a demonstration of just how grave the appellate courts consider t [...]
What Do Model Antitrust Class Actions Look Like?
“[O]vercome with a rare and gargantuan sense of awe,” a federal district court judge in Sioux City, Iowa, has called a consolidated class action case arising from price fixing conspiracies in the concrete industry “a model for the nation.”
The case was brought on behalf of purchasers of ready-mix concrete against ready-mix concrete producers and sellers and certain of their officers, directors, owners, and employees who have pleaded guilty to conspiring to fix prices for ready-mix concrete in the “Iowa region.” The first complaints were filed in May 2010, and others followed. The suits were eventually consolidated. The class period covered January 2006, through at least April 2 [...]
Proposed Combination of Tax Software Makers Violates Section 7 of the Clayton Act
The federal district court in Washington, D.C. yesterday released its Memorandum Opinion explaining its October 31 order enjoining H&R Block, Inc.’s proposed acquisition of 2SS Holdings, Inc.—the maker of “TaxACT” tax preparation software.
The court took a traditional approach in reviewing the merger and concluded that the transaction, which would have combined the second and third-largest providers of digital do-it-yourself (DDIY) tax preparation products, violates Section 7 of the Clayton Act. It began by defining the relevant market. After determining that the Department of Justice made out its prima facie case of anticompetitive effects based on market concentration, the court co [...]
AT&T/T-Mobile Deal, Antitrust Division Regional Office Closures Addressed at Justice Department Oversight Hearing
While Attorney General Eric Holder spent much of his time at today’s Senate Judiciary Committee Department of Justice Oversight hearing responding to question’s about the “Fast and Furious” law enforcement operation, he also was asked to provide his thoughts on some recent developments at the Antitrust Division.
Senator Herb Kohl (D-WI), chairman of the Senate Antitrust, Competition Policy and Consumer Rights panel, questioned the Attorney General on the Justice Department’s readiness to pursue its court challenge to block AT&T Inc.’s planned acquisition of T-Mobile USA, Inc. The Senator sought confirmation from the Attorney General that the Justice Department was prepared to tak [...]
FTC Needs To Stop The Express Scripts-Medco Merger
Antitrust enforcement has certainly been revived at the Obama Justice Department. With recent cases against Comcast/NBC, health insurers and telecom firms, the DOJ has begun to demonstrate why antitrust enforcement is a critical bulwark for competitive markets.
No area is in greater need of an infusion of sound enforcement than healthcare. The healthcare debate demonstrated the dysfunction of healthcare intermediary markets — health insurer and pharmacy benefit manager (PBM) markets are highly concentrated and largely unregulated, and massive consolidation of health insurers and PBMs over the past decade has led to a long list of deceptive and anticompetitive practices.
Fortunately, the DO [...]
