Antitrust Lawyer Blog

In a recent judgment dated September 30, 2007, the Federal Supreme Court held that even after parties abandon their merger plans due to a prohibition decision by the German Federal Cartel Office (“BKartA”), German courts hold jurisdiction to rule on the question as to whether the BKartA was right to prohibit the proposed merger. The…

On September 27, FirstGroup plc entered into a settlement agreement with the DOJ for First Group to sell off a large school bus contract and associated assets in Alaska in order to progress with its acquisition of Laidlaw International Inc. Without the settlement agreement, the DOJ believed the transaction raised competition concerns in the provision…

On September 21, 2007, Federal Trade Commission advised the Greater Rochester Independent Practice Association, Inc. (GRIPA), that it had no present intention to challenge the organization’s planned conversion to a non-exclusive physician network joint venture. GRIPA requested a staff advisory opinion regarding its proposal to combine and coordinate the provision of medical services to patients.…

On September 20, 2007, Mr. Jacobi, the president and owner of Jacobi Industries Inc., pled guilty to a felony charge of conspiring to rig bids on U.S. Department of Defense (“DOD”) contracts for military tiedown equipment and cargo securing systems. Under the plea agreement, Mr. Jacobi agreed to pay a criminal fine of $20,000, and…

On September 19, 2007, the European Commission (the “Commission”) adopted a package of proposals in order to reform the EU electricity and gas regulatory frameworks. The main proposals concerned unbundling, third country ownership and enhancing the power and independence of national regulators. The Commission considers that existing legislation allowed companies to maintain network operations and…

On September 17, Thomas O. Barnett, Assistant Attorney General for the Department’s Antitrust Division, issued a statement scrutinizing the Court of First Instance of the European Communities (“CFI) decision to affirm the substance of the European Commission’s (“EC”) March 2004 decision against Microsoft. Mr. Barnett said that “in light of the United States’ own antitrust…

In a ruling released on September 17, 2007, the Court of First Instance (the “Court”), the second highest court in Europe, reaffirmed the European Commission’s (“EC”) 2004 decision that Microsoft abused its market power by tying its digital media player to the Windows operating system. By bundling these products together, Microsoft undercut existing competition in…

On September 14, a federal grand jury in San Francisco convicted Judy Green, of Temecula, California, a former sales representative for her role in schemes to defraud the federal E-Rate program. Ms. Green was convicted on all charges in a 22-count indictment involving fraud, collusion, aiding and abetting, and conspiracy in connection with E-Rate projects…

On September 13, a Fort Lauderdale, Florida federal grand jury returned an indictment charging two individuals in a conspiracy to rig bids fix prices and allocate market shares for sales of marine hose used to transport oil. The indictment, filed in the U.S. District Court in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, charged Francesco Scaglia and Val M.…

On August 14, 2007, the DOJ announced that a federal grand jury in Phoenix returned an indictment charging a commercial refrigeration company and its co-owner with participating in a conspiracy to rig bids on contracts for the installation of commercial refrigeration equipment in Safeway Inc. grocery stores in the Phoenix metropolitan area. The indictment, filed…