Update May 2011: The Ninth Circuit upheld the dismissal of a private challenge to the merger, holding that the plaintiff’s allegation of a pharmaceutical market was inadequate. Update October 2009: The FTC has signed off on the merger on the condition that Pfizer sell some of its animal health business. But a group of pharmacists […]
Author Archives: Steve Semeraro
E-bay Monopolization Case Dismissed
May 28, 2011 – 11:26 am
Update May 2011: The 9th Circuit affirmed the district court’s decision. Judge Jeremy Fogel, N.D. California, has granted summary judgment to E-bay in a case alleging that it monopolized the online auction market on the ground that the plaintiffs lacked antitrust injury. The court found that the plaintiffs had presented no evidence of either restricted output […]
Limits on Access to Discount Listings in MLS Violate FTC Act
May 25, 2011 – 2:20 pm
The Sixth Circuit has upheld a Federal Trade Commission ruling that a Michigan MLS service acted anticompetitively in adopting a rule that discount real estate listings would not (1) be transmitted to other public sites that provided access to full commission listings; and (2) listed within the MLS’s default search function. The court upheld the FTC’s findings […]
Text Messaging Case to Move Forward
May 22, 2011 – 6:51 pm
The Seventh Circuit in an interlocutory appeal written by Judge Richard Posner upheld the district judges decision in a multi-district litigation to allow an antitrust claim to move forward. The claim alleges a conspiracy among the largest cell phone providers to restrain competition with respect to text messages. Although the complaint did not allege direct […]
EC Investigates Generator Company Merger
May 12, 2011 – 2:39 pm
The EC is investigating the planned acquisition of MWM Holding GmbH of Germany by Caterpillar Inc. of the US. Both companies are active in the reciprocating engine generator sets (“gensets”) market. Gensets are used to generate power, and the Commission is concerned that the merger would restrain competition in the gas powered genset market.
EC Opens Credit Default Swap Investigations
May 12, 2011 – 2:36 pm
The EC is investigating the credit default swaps market, examining whether (1) 16 investment banks and Markit, the leading provider of financial information in the CDS market, colluded in order to control financial information, and (2) 9 of the banks and ICE Clear Europe, the leading clearing house for CDS. The Commission will investigate in particular whether the preferential tariffs granted by […]
ECJ Upholds Fine on Visa for Excluding Bank From Payment System
May 12, 2011 – 2:32 pm
The European Court of Justice has upheld a 2007 EC decision finding that Visa infringed EU rules on restrictive business practices by refusing to admit Morgan Stanley Bank as a member to its payment card network. The Court also upheld the €10.2 million fine imposed on Visa.
EU Household Laundry Powder Cartel
May 12, 2011 – 2:25 pm
The EC fined Procter & Gamble and Unilever € 315.2 million for operating a cartel together with Henkel in the market for household laundry powder detergents in eight European Union countries. The fine on the two companies was reduced 10%, because they acknowledged the facts and thus enabled the EC to bring the investigation to a swift conclusion.
EU Rail Freight Investigation
May 12, 2011 – 2:15 pm
EC officials conducted surprise inspections of companies active in the rail freight sector and related products industry in Baltic countries.