Antitrust Lawyer Blog

On December 3, 2008, the Department of Justice (“DOJ”) required Republic Services Inc. (“Republic”) and Allied Waste Industries Inc. (“Allied”) to divest to divest 87 commercial waste collection routes, nine landfills and 10 transfer stations for Republic’s $4.5 billion acquisition of Allied to proceed. The transaction as originally proposed would result in reduced competition and…

On December 2, 2008, Peter Whittle, David Brammar and Bryan Allison all received reductions in their sentences to 3 months, 2 years, and 20 months respectively from the UK Court of Appeal. On June 11, 2008, the three men pled guilty for running a cartel in UK’s first criminal prosecution for bid rigging. Mr. Allison…

On December 1, 2008, Dunlop Oil & Marine Ltd (“Dunlop”), located in Grimsby, England, pled guilty to rigging bids, fixing prices and allocating market shares of marine hose sold in the United States. Dunlop also agreed to pay a $4.54 million criminal fine and cooperate with the DOJ’s ongoing antitrust investigation. Marine hose is a…

On November 25, 2008, the FTC moved to block a merger between CCC Information Systems Inc (“CCC”), a subsidiary of CCC Holdings Inc., and Mitchell International Inc (“Mitchell”), owned by Aurora Equity Fund III LP. Both companies provide services in estimatics, electronic systems used to estimate the cost of collision repairs, and total loss valuation…

On November 19, 2008, Assistant Attorney General Thomas, Barnett of the Department of Justice’s Antitrust Division resigned. Under Mr. Barnett, the Antitrust Division acquired $1.8 billion in criminal fines against 50 corporations and 91 individuals. The Division was also responsible for 34 cases in which it filed to either block a transaction due to anticompetitive…

On November 18, 2008, UK’s Office of Fair Trading (“OFT”) cleared InBev N.V/S.A.’s (“InBev”) $52 billion acquisition of Anheuser-Busch Companies Inc. (“Anheuser”). The new company, Anheuser-Busch InBev, will own InBev’s Stella Artois and Beck’s lager brands and Anheuser’s Budweiser lager brand. The transaction cleared the OFT without any conditions, even though the newly merged company…

One November 17, 2008, Andrew Barmakian, the former president of a California-based marine products company, pled guilty and agreed to serve a sentence and pay a criminal fine for his role in a conspiracy to rig bids for contracts for marine products purchased by the U.S. Navy, the U.S. Coast Guard, and other private companies.…

On November 14, 2008, the Department of Justice (“DOJ”) required Inbev N.V./S.A. (“Inbev”) to divest its subsidiary Labatt USA (“Labatt”) in order for Inbev’s $52 billion acquisition of Anheuser-Busch Companies Inc (“Anheuser-Busch”) to proceed. Along with the divestiture, Inbev must sell its license to brew, market, promote, and sell the Labatt brand of beer for…

On November 14, the DOJ allowed InBev N.V./S.A. (“InBev”) to acquire Anheuser-Busch Companies, Inc. (“Anheuser-Busch”) on the condition that InBev divest Labatt USA. The DOJ was concerned that without the divestiture of Labatt USA, the merger was likely to lessen competition substantially in the market for beer in the metropolitan areas of Buffalo, Rochester, and…