Update Sept. 2009: In Synergetics USA Inc. v. Alcon Laboratories Inc. et al., Southern District of New York Judge Denise Cote denied microsurgical device maker Synergetics USA Inc.’s bid to revive its theory of price coercion in an antitrust suit accusing Swiss rival Alcon Inc. of illegal product tying. Judge Cote ruled that Synergetics was […]
Author Archives: Steve Semeraro
DC Circuit Overturns FCC Cable Market Share Limit
September 10, 2009 – 9:32 am
In Comcast Corp. V. FCC, District of Columbia’s Circuit Court of Appeals scrapped the Federal Communication Commission’s subscriber-share limit for cable providers, handing cable challengers a victory in a 16-year effort to scrap the ownership cap. The Court held that the FCC had clearly failed to take into account growing competition for video programming from satellite and […]
CFI Upholds Article 82 Ruling for Refusal to Supply
September 10, 2009 – 9:16 am
On Sept. 9, 2009, the European Court of First Instance (CFI) dismissed Clearstream’s challenge to an EC ruling that Clearstream Banking AG and its parent company Clearstream International SA violated Article 82 by refusing to supply clearing and settlement services to one of its customers and by applying discriminatory prices to that same customer.
ECJ Rules that Parent Can Be Liable for Anticompetitive Conduct of Subsidiary
September 10, 2009 – 9:12 am
The European Court of Justice dismissed Akzo Nobel‘s appeal of a 2007 Court of First Instance judgment affirming a fine for cartel activities regarding choline chloride, a feed additive. The fine included the participating subsidiaries as well as the parent company on a theory of joint and several liability. The decision amounts to high court confirmation of the […]
EC Approves Pfizer/Wyeth Merger with Divestures
September 8, 2009 – 4:08 pm
Update September 2009: A group of California pharmacies have filed a challenge to the merger in the Northern District of California. The pharmacies cite the fact that banks receiving TARP money are financing the deal as well as the size of the merged firm as grounds for blocking the deal. Pfizer Inc. has secured the […]
Monopolization Claims Relating to Video Football to Proceed
August 31, 2009 – 9:48 am
In Pecover et al. v. Electronic Arts Inc., Northern District of California Judge Vaughn Walker refused to throw out Sherman Act and California’s Cartwright Act claims in a proposed consumer class action alleging that Electronic Arts Inc.’s exclusive licenses with various football leagues have “killed off” competition for its Madden series of football games, which […]
FTC Resolves Pricing Issues with Alta Bates
August 31, 2009 – 9:46 am
In In the Matter of Alta Bates Medical Group Inc., the FTC resolved its price-fixing concerns that the company had 1) made, received, rejected and countered price offers to and from insurers without going back to its individual doctors to find out what price each would take for their services; 2) tried to limit the products Keiser Permanente Insurance […]
Coastal Shipping Cartel Civil Case Dismissed Without Prejudice
August 23, 2009 – 11:10 am
Update August 2009: Judge Thomas Zilly, Western District of Washington, dismissed a private civil action alleging a conspiracy to increase prices in Pacific shipping routes. The court held that the plaintiffs allegations of parallel price increases in a market with rising fuel costs and guilty pleas by executives relating to shipping in another geographic area […]
AT&T Files Complaint with FCC on Access to HD Sports Programming
August 20, 2009 – 4:14 pm
In AT&T Services Inc. et al. v. Madison Square Garden LP and Cablevision Systems Corp., in a 56-page complaint AT&T Inc. has asked the FCC to prohibit Cablevision Systems Corp.’s from denying AT&T access to its high-definition programming for two of its Connecticut regional sports networks. AT&T obtained the standard versions of these networks after filing a program access complaint […]