Occupational licensing has been under antitrust attack in the last several years, from two Supreme Court cases narrowing the state action exemption to numerous reports on local regulations such as taxi medallions. The proposed Alternatives to Licensing that Lower Obstacles to Work Act (ALLOW) Act could prove to be another step in lightening the load…
The Antitrust Division has announced that three more companies have agreed to plead guilty in the electrolytic capacitor investigation. According to a DOJ press release of August 22, (here) Rubycon Corp, Elna Co, and Holy Stone Holdings Co, have agreed to plead guilty to fixing the prices of electrolytic capacitors sold in the United States…
The Department of Justice Antitrust Division earlier this week rejected efforts by performing rights organizations American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers (ASCAP) and Broadcast Music, Inc. (BMI) and the two largest music publishers to relax the terms of antitrust consent decrees that govern the collective licensing of musical works for public performance. The modifications to…
The George Washington University Law School and Concurrences Review are hosting “120 Merger Regimes: Multinational Deals in a World of Non-Convergence: US, EU, Brazil, China . . .” on September 19 at the law school in Washington, D.C. The conference will open with welcoming remarks by George Washington Law School professor and former FTC Chairman…
One of the aspirations of many antitrust/competition lawyers worldwide is to achieve as much convergence as possible among competition authorities in enforcing competition law. Counseling companies and individuals who do business on a worldwide basis on the many differences in competition law can be inefficient, costly and result in less than optimal competition and deterrence…
Fordham University School of Law will hold its 43rd Annual Conference on International Antitrust Law and Policy on September 22-23, 2016, at Fordham Law School in New York City. The topic will be the future of antitrust in Asia. There also will be a pre-conference antitrust economics workshop on September 21. The conference will begin…
Writing from the floor of my office, you will all now be aware that the British public voted in favour of a so-called “Brexit”, or exit from the European Union (“EU“). Before I turn the lights off, I thought I would share the following, which may be of interest to our readers, on the implications…
On April 27, 2016 Hitachi Chemical Co., Ltd. was charged by the Antitrust Division in a one-count Information alleging that the company (through predecessor companies) engaged in a conspiracy to “fix prices and rig bids of certain electrolytic capacitors in the United States and elsewhere beginning at least as early as August 2002 and continuing…
In one sense the decision of the Third Circuit in Eisai v Sanofi-Aventis on 4 May was fairly unremarkable. Like those before it in Concord Boat, Allied Orthopedic, Southeast Missouri Hospital and others, the court rejected Eisai’s allegation that Sanofi’s loyalty discounts were an anticompetitive de facto exclusive dealing arrangement. Commentary immediately following the decision…
Ever since the incoming EU Competition Commissioner said that information was the new currency of the internet, antitrust commentators started to spill ink on the topic of Big Data and whether it was a Big Deal. The topic now seems to occupy a place on the agenda of many antitrust conferences – and as recently…
