I have been advocating for some time that antitrust cartel whistleblower legislation be passed. Whistleblower legislation has been phenomenally successful for the SEC and other agencies and there is no reason price fixing/bid rigging cartels shouldn’t face the threat of a whistleblower. Kimberly Justice and I wrote a short article: It’s a Crime There Isn’t an…
On August 20, 2018 the Antitrust Division announced in a press release (here) the return of an indictment (here) against a real estate company, a realtor and an accountant that does not include a charge of violating the Sherman Act. The press release states: [T]he Detloffs devised a scheme requiring repair contractors to pay the…
Fordham University School of Law’s Competition Law Institute (FCLI) will hold its 45th Annual Conference on International Antitrust Law and Policy, on September 6-7, 2018, and an Antitrust Economics Workshop, September 5, 2018, at Fordham Law School in New York City. The two-day conference will include antitrust agency heads, senior officials from antitrust authorities, leading…
A record €4.34 billion (approximately $5 billion) fine was imposed on Google last week by the European Commission (EC) in response to the company’s imposition of restrictions on Android device manufacturers and mobile network operators. The EC announced that Google’s practice of requiring mobile device manufacturers to pre-install the Google Search app and browser app (Chrome)…
The DOJ issued a standard press release yesterday announcing yet another individual guilty plea in its long running real estate foreclosure auction collusion investigation: Seventh Mississippi Real Estate Investor Pleads Guilty to Conspiring to Rig Bids at Public Foreclosure Auctions. According to the press release to date there have been “convictions of well over 100 other…
In a five-to-four decision yesterday, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that the Department of Justice Antitrust Division and several states failed to prove that so-called “anti-steering” provisions imposed by American Express Company on merchants that accept AmEx cards harmed competition in violation of federal antitrust law. The Court, in an opinion authored by Justice Clarence…
In a decision that will have a significant impact on antitrust enforcement, particularly private damages actions against international cartels, a unanimous Supreme Court ruled that a federal court considering a case in which foreign law is relevant is not bound to defer to an official interpretation of the law offered by the foreign government. The decision…
The headline sounds funny, but the story is no laughing matter. A plea agreement in the electrolytic capacitor investigation between the United States and Nippon Chemi-Con (“NCC”) is in jeopardy because of an unfortunate conflict of interest lapse by an attorney at the Department of Justice. There was a hearing before Judge Donato yesterday on…
On May 9, 2018 Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein delivered remarks to the New York City Bar White Collar Crime Institute. He announced a new Department policy that encourages coordination among Department components and other enforcement agencies when imposing multiple penalties for the same conduct. The full prepared remarks are here. Below is an excerpt: Today,…
On April 9, the Antitrust Division of the Department of Justice held a public roundtable on the subject of criminal antitrust compliance. If any other Division of the DOJ had done this, it would not be particularly exceptional, but within the antitrust compliance world, it was significant—exciting even! Since at least the time of the…
