Articles Posted in International Highlights

On May 16, the European Commission raided 20 gas companies across five countries following suspicions that the targeted firms restricted “access to pipeline and storage facilities” and engaged in certain “concerted practices between incumbents that can be described as market-sharing,” according to an EC spokesperson. Among the companies raided were Germany’s RWF, France’s Gaz de…

On May 11, Italy's antitrust authority ruled that Prime Minister Berlusconi did not violate conflict of interest rules when his government approved subsidies to Italians who purchase digital television decoders. While critics of the subsidies claimed that they favored Mediaset SPA, Berlusconi's own television broadcasting empire, the antitrust authority found that the

On May 5, the Federal Trade Commission announced that at the conclusion of the International Competition Network “ICN” conference in Cape Town, South Africa, significant accomplishments were made, including the completion of a Merger Guidelines Workbook and a new agenda that includes a working group on unilateral conduct. The fifth annual conference, hosted by the…

On April 27, the DOJ announced that Assistant Attorney General Thomas O. Barnett will participate in the fifth annual International Competition Network (“ICN”) Conference in Cape Town, South Africa, on May 3-5, 2006. At the conference, senior antitrust officials and private antitrust experts from around the world as well as representatives from intergovernmental organizations will…

The FTC announced on April 19 it joined its foreign partners in calling for stepped up cross-border law enforcement cooperation and increased public/private sector cooperation to combat spam. The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (“OECD”) issued recommendations in this area on the same day. To date, the FTC already implemented many of the OECD…