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Competition
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May 16, 2013
GM Unit Faces Spanish Antitrust Probe Over Spare Parts
Spain's antitrust watchdog said Thursday it would investigate General Motors Co.'s Opel unit to determine if the car company restrained competition on spare auto parts supplied to dealers and authorized mechanics.
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May 15, 2013
Businessman Denies Blocking FCPA Probe Into Mining Co.
A French businessman linked to BSG Resources Ltd. pled not guilty Wednesday to charges that he obstructed a U.S. investigation into bribes the mining company allegedly paid to secure mining rights in Guinea.
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May 15, 2013
Damages Against Dow Upped To $1.2B In Urethane Suit
A Kansas federal court on Wednesday entered judgment in favor of a class of urethane foam buyers who won a $400 million jury verdict against The Dow Chemical Co. in a price-fixing dispute in February, trebling the damages to $1.2 billion.
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May 15, 2013
Wall Street To FCPA Enforcers: Bring It On
Foreign Corrupt Practices Act prosecutors have Wall Street in their crosshairs after suing two traders at New York broker-dealer Direct Access Partners LLC last week, but experts say the hyper-vigilant industry is ready for any clampdown.
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May 15, 2013
EU Court To Hear Telefonica's €152M Antitrust Fine Appeal
The European Union's highest court will weigh Telefonica SA's bid to overturn its €151.9 million ($195.6 million) antitrust fine Thursday, with the Spanish telecommunications giant set to argue that the margin squeeze penalty violated its property rights for its broadband network.
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May 15, 2013
Obama's 1st Term Rulemaking Rate Soars By Bush's Mark
President Barack Obama has pushed through a significantly higher number of major rules over the last four years than former President George W. Bush did during his own first term, according to a report by the research arm of Congress.
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May 15, 2013
Foxconn Beats Antitrust Suit Over USB Technology
A New York federal judge on Tuesday tossed a lawsuit alleging China-based Foxconn International Inc. stifled competitors by flouting licensing terms for standard-essential patents covering USB 3.0 connectors, ruling the alleged misconduct fell outside the scope of U.S. antitrust laws.
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May 15, 2013
Hitachi, LG, Others Released From LCD Price-Fixing Suits
A California federal judge on Wednesday approved stipulated dismissals releasing Hitachi Ltd. from antitrust allegations lodged by two Sony Corp. units and LG Display, AU Optronics Corp. and others from a related suit in multidistrict litigation over alleged price-fixing of liquid crystal display panels.
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May 15, 2013
FTC Wins Restraining Order In $195M Phoebe Merger Fight
A Georgia federal judge on Wednesday temporarily blocked Phoebe Putney Health System Inc. from further integrating its operations with a nearby rival, a ruling that comes in the Federal Trade Commission's antitrust challenge of the now-consummated $195 million acquisition.
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May 15, 2013
FDA Tells DC Circ. KV Drug Compounding Wasn't A Priority
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration told the D.C. Circuit on Monday that it acted fully in its discretion when it determined cracking down on competition for bankrupt drugmaker KV Pharmaceutical Co.'s prenatal medicine Makena was not a priority, and asked the court to stay out of the dispute.
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May 15, 2013
Ex-Pa. County Officials Want Corruption Convictions Axed
Attorneys for two former Pennsylvania county commissioners found guilty in a bribery and extortion scheme in June 2011 told the Third Circuit on Wednesday that flaws in the government’s indictment and an improper cross-examination of one of the defendants warranted a new trial in the case.
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May 15, 2013
Apple Blasts 'Ringmaster' Label In E-Book Price-Fixing Case
The U.S. Department of Justice described Apple Inc. in documents released Tuesday as the “ringmaster” of an alleged conspiracy with major publishers to fix e-book prices, but Apple fired back, saying it had actually acted independently, in the interest of its own business.
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May 15, 2013
FTC Commissioner Defends Ending Google Probe
Federal Trade Commissioner Maureen K. Ohlhausen on Wednesday defended the commission's decision to close its search bias investigation of Google Inc., saying the search giant's algorithms and practices had a negligible antitrust effect and that an agency remedy wouldn't have been effective.
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May 15, 2013
Q&A With Squire Sanders' Brady Dugan
Both prosecutors and defense counsel could benefit from more guidance from the U.S. Department of Justice regarding how it calculates affected commerce in a cartel matter, says Brady Dugan, a partner with Squire Sanders LLP specializing in criminal and civil antitrust.
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May 14, 2013
Chunghwa Exec Says Feds' Price-Fixing Suit Is Time-Barred
Attorneys for a former Chunghwa Picture Tubes Ltd. executive living in Taiwan, outside the reach of U.S. prosecutors, urged a California federal judge Tuesday to dismiss an indictment alleging he conspired to fix prices on television color display tubes, arguing that prosecutors missed statutory deadlines to bring the charges.
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May 14, 2013
EU Raids BP, Statoil Over Benchmark Rate Manipulation
The European Commission raided BP PLC and Statoil on Tuesday based on suspicions that the energy giants might have colluded to manipulate benchmark oil and biofuel rates used in derivatives and commodity sales.
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May 14, 2013
Delta Asks DC Circ. To Shut Down $3.4B Air India Loan
Delta Air Lines Inc. on Tuesday urged the D.C. Circuit to revoke $3.4 billion in loans guaranteed by the Export-Import Bank of the U.S. that allow Air India Ltd. to purchase 30 planes, saying the bank ignored the effects of the added route competition on U.S. airlines.
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May 14, 2013
Lipitor Pay-For-Delay Suit Returned To W.Va. State Court
A federal judge on Monday sent to state court West Virginia's allegations that Pfizer Inc. entered an anti-competitive settlement of a patent dispute with a company seeking to make generic Lipitor, ruling the suit did not arise under federal law.
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May 14, 2013
Dell Accuses Toshiba, Sony Of Fixing Prices For Disk Drives
Dell Inc. on Monday struck Toshiba Corp., Sony Corp., Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd. and other major electronics companies with an antitrust lawsuit in Texas federal court, accusing them of engaging in a wide-ranging conspiracy to fix prices in the market for optical disk drives.
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May 14, 2013
Google Rival Urges EU To Reject Search Antitrust Deal
A Google Inc. rival warned Tuesday that the company's proposed antitrust settlement with the European Commission wouldn't stop the Internet giant from manipulating its search results to the detriment of its competitors and might even make the situation worse.
Expert Analysis
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Ralph Lauren: Inadequate Rewards For Exemplary Cooperation
Although the government will no doubt cite the recent Ralph Lauren Corp. nonprosecution agreements as an exemplar of the benefits of self-reporting and cooperation, we think they reaffirm the importance of careful consideration before a company decides to self-report potential unlawful conduct, say attorneys with Covington & Burling LLP.
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Forensic Analytics Can Find Needles In Multiple Haystacks
Forensic analytics is indispensable to any situation involving voluminous transactions or other large amounts of data. Yet, too few attorneys or organizations use, or maximize, forensic analytics to its fullest benefit. The recently publicized European soccer match-fixing scandal provides a handy illustration, say Jonny Frank and Alex Lefferts of StoneTurn Group LLP.
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Protect Your Company From FCPA Risks In Latin America
Latin America is an area of key concern for companies operating overseas and subject to the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, and has been for a number of years. The charges against four former employees of BizJet International Sales and Support Inc. are the latest reminder for companies to take steps to mitigate the corruption risk associated with doing business in the region, say attorneys with Fulbright & Jaworski LLP.
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Pharma IP Rights In China: Avoiding The Antitrust Pitfalls
China's recent draft guidelines are a welcome development in providing insight on the interaction between intellectual property rights and the Chinese Anti-Monopoly Law. Although the guidelines bear some similarities with the approach adopted in other jurisdictions, including the EU, there are aspects that are troubling for the pharmaceutical sector, say Suzanne Rab, an EU competition attorney, and Jet Zhisong Deng of T&D Associates.
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An Outline Of SEC's Bold Enforcement Plan
Recent statements by newly confirmed U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission chairwoman Mary Jo White and other SEC officials suggest a strong enforcement effort in the coming years — and the Obama administration’s budget proposal for FY 2014 indicates that the commission likely will have the resources it needs to support this effort, say attorneys with Arnold & Porter LLP.
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Yet Another EC Energy Case Resolved Through Commitments
While the commitment procedure may be a convenient means by which the European Commission can further liberalize the energy sector, commitment decisions provide limited guidance to the business community as to why the EC had antitrust concerns about a certain conduct in the first place, say Yves Botteman and Agapi Patsa of Steptoe & Johnson LLP.
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Another Example Of The Benefits Of FCPA Self-Reporting
Ralph Lauren Corp.'s aggressive response to its Foreign Corrupt Practices Act violations led to nonprosecution agreements with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission and the U.S. Department of Justice, which demonstrates a continued focus by the government on securing and rewarding cooperation, say Jonathan Green and James Athas of Kaye Scholer LLP.
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Bosley Information Exchange Case Is A Cautionary Tale
The Federal Trade Commission's recent Bosley Inc. case highlights the enforcement risk faced by companies that share sensitive business information with competitors. It also underscores the need to include all high-level executives in company antitrust compliance programs, say attorneys with Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld LLP.
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China Is Cracking Down On Abuse Of Prepaid Cards
In China, prepaid cards have provided considerable convenience to the public and may even have stimulated consumption, but they also give rise to the risk of corruption and bribery. The Chinese government has recently reinvigorated its efforts to regulate the issuance and circulation of such commercial prepaid cards, say attorneys with Debevoise & Plimpton LLP.
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OIG's Alert Has Broad Implications With A Hint Of Warning
Recently, the Office of the Inspector General of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services issued a special fraud alert on physician-owned distributorships, an entity that has been under ongoing controversy. While focusing on PODs, the alert makes some statements that have broader implications in the industry, reminding it of significant OIG positions, say attorneys with Ropes & Gray LLP.