Antitrust Lawyer Blog

On April 15, 2014, the FTC approved a petition from Toys “R” Us (“TRU”) to reopen and modify a 1998 final Commission order. In that order, Toys ‘R’ Us, Inc. v. FTC, 221 F.3d 928 (7th Cir. 2000), TRU was found, among other things, to have used its significant market power to orchestrate a “hub-and-spoke” conspiracy…

On April 14, 2014, the FTC announced that it reached a settlement agreement with Akorn Enterprises (“Akorn”), which allows it to proceed with its acquisition of Hi-Tech Pharmacal, Inc. (“Hi-Tech”). Specifically, Akorn and Hi-Tech will sell the rights and assets to three generic prescription eye medications and two generic topical anesthetics to Watson Laboratories, Inc.,…

On April 11, 2014, the FTC won a court judgment against an illegal immigrant services scam. The court has ordered the defendants, Manuel and Lola Alban of Loma International Business Group, Inc. liable for $616,000 in refunds to Spanish immigrants. The court noted the severe nature of the case due to the amount of harm…

On March 17, 2014, sports labor attorney, Jeffrey Kessler, filed suit against the NCAA and five power conferences, alleging that capping player compensation at the cost of a scholarship is an antitrust violation.  The lawsuit argues that limiting player compensation amounts to “price-fixing,” and should be considered a violation of existing antitrust laws.  Unlike previous…

Last week, the newly-established UK Competition and Markets Authority (“CMA”), its main anti-trust and consumer protection agency, announced an advisory process to provide guidance to businesses on the application of competition law to potential horizontal and vertical agreements raising novel or unresolved issues has been put into practice. The “Short-form Opinion” (“SfO”) tool has been launched on…

On April 10, 2014, the Federal Trade Commission (“FTC”) announced that it will end its litigation against Ardagh Group SA’s $1.7 billion acquisition of Saint-Gobain Containers, Inc.’s U.S. bottling operations, after the former agreed to divest six of its nine glass container plants in the United States. The case began when the FTC requested for…

On April 8, 2014, China’s Insurance Regulatory Commission (“CIRC”) announced that it is relaxing merger and acquisition (M&A) rules in the insurance industry. Specifically, CIRC scrapped the rule that would previously limit insurers from buying more than one peer that competes in the same market segment. This move has been welcomed by both domestic and…

A recently-appointed Federal Trade Commission (“FTC”) official has reportedly responded to criticism that the Affordable Care Act (“ACA”) is in conflict with federal antitrust law, writing a letter to the New York Times earlier this week to defend the interaction of the legislative areas. Martin Gaynor of the FTC Bureau of Economics wrote a letter…

On March 20, 2014, the Chinese Ministry of Commerce (MOFCOM) issued a statement on violations of rules on reporting mergers. The statement announced that starting on May 1, 2014, MOFCOM will publish on its website a list of all offenders who fail to report mergers in violation of the Anti-Monopoly Law, on top of existing…

On March 17, 2014, the Chinese Ministry of Commerce (MOFCOM) sought comments from antitrust lawyers on draft rules for its long-awaited simplified merger review procedure in a meeting behind close doors. Attendees reported that MOFCOM showed a much simplified notification form, which could significantly reduce the burden of proof companies have to provide to MOFCOM…