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Antitrust & Competition
Antitrust and competition regulatory news from MLex covers the latest enforcement cases, criminal investigations and class action litigation across the globe. As an MLex subscriber, you’ll gain exclusive access to not only the latest antitrust news and competition law updates, but also in-depth reporting and analysis on the effects to your clients or business. The selected stories below represent some of the latest antitrust law reporting from our investigative journalists across the globe.
Recent Antitrust & Competition articles
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The hearts of Australian antitrust lawyers have been a-flutter for over a month — ever since the country’s top antitrust official ventilated a proposal to overhaul the country’s merger rules. -
The UK hoped to see a “Brexit dividend” through adopting more agile and business-friendly rules once free from EU rulemaking. -
Commissioner Rebecca Kelly Slaughter tweeted about the Federal Trade Commission’s role and “how we can be antiracist” in 2020. -
FTC Khan tough questions about the agency’s performance and seemed opposed to granting a request for more funding. -
The Federal TradIn a rare and painful development for the DOJ today, a federal judge in Connecticut acquitted six aerospace industry executives mid-trial on the grounds that no reasonable juror would have found them guilty.e Commission is expanding staff and taking tough action while preparing for more potential losses to its enforcement arsenal at the hands of the courts -
The Federal Trade Commission is expanding staff and taking tough action while preparing for more potential losses to its enforcement arsenal at the hands of the courts -
Apple’s successful appeal of the UK antitrust regulator's decision to probe its mobile browser and cloud-gaming services -
Big EU cases against dominant tech companies should be swifter and easier under a new policy approach that kicked off today -
Market-dominance abuse dispute between Japanese Hitachi Metals and four Chinese magnetic-product manufacturers -
Only discrimination involving the design of digital products or services should be classified as self-preferencing -
Antitrust authorities are facing unprecedented pressure from governments and the public -
Illumina probably had a sinking feeling reading TowerCast’s win in the European Court of Justice -
Andrew Leigh floated the idea of banning no-poach agreements and noncompete clauses -
Jimmy Carter improving competition through his antitrust policies and by widespread industry deregulation -
LiveNation and Ticketmaster gave one company control over several parts of the production and selling process. -
Latin American antitrust authorities share common concerns about digital markets -
The noisy resignation of the FTC’s sole remaining Republican commissioner, Christine Wilson -
FTC has been an independent agency. But if some companies and their ideological allies have their way, -
Google, beset with antitrust lawsuits, stands alone among the biggest tech companies in its adversarial relationship with California’s attorney general. -
FTC rulemaking on non-compete agreements faces legal obstacles but could reap political and public policy benefits -
Big Tech companies and other targets of a wave of bipartisan US congressional antitrust scrutiny -
Google battle in two different courts against two different coalitions of enforcers. -
The year ahead will intensify congressional scrutiny of the FTC, generate vigorous debate about new merger guidelines -
There is no clarity on when the new head of the Indian antitrust authority will be appointed. -
US state attorneys general are working to cope with the attrition of their best antitrust lawyers. -
The Chinese-owned ByteDance Ltd., which owns TikTok, has come under growing scrutiny from US regulators -
New Brazil law will help courts with civil antitrust suits, however some benefits will likely not be immediately applied to ongoing civil lawsuits. -
US FTC has expanded its regulatory reach with the issuance of a new policy statement on Section 5 -
JFTC helping smaller companies pass on increased costs to their larger trading partners, and ultimately, to consumers -
Japan Fair Trade Commission has played the central role, with the courts trailing behind in alignment -
JFTC Chairman Furuya dismissed as “nonsense” claims that the JFTC’s enforcement endeavors against Big Tech have been sidelined -
The US Department of Justice’s antitrust division is shaking up the world of corporate governance. -
The Supreme Court will hear arguments involving when companies can challenge actions of the FTC -
Is China in coming years committed to a robust antitrust regime -
If House Republicans have their way, members of the FTC will have to leave their posts the day their terms expire -
The House passed a bill that combined three measures which advocates of stronger enforcement -
EU’s new envoy for digital, is looking to pave the way towards a more cooperative relationship with Big Tech -
Digital economy presents new scenarios for competition policy for which regulators and courts need "novel" and "creative" approaches -
UK collective action regime that pursues damages for businesses and consumers over alleged competition-law infringements -
Chinese auto companies should sharpen their antitrust tools ahead of future industry-wide essential-patent disputes -
Media companies and their congressional allies have escalated efforts to obtain an exemption to antitrust laws -
Democratic House and Senate leaders haven’t committed to holding a vote on the legislation. -
Brazilian competition authority must build a “solid” body of case law on anticompetitive practices in digital markets -
First individual to face a trial under Australia’s 2009 criminal-cartel offenses, Robert Hogan -
The European Commission is marshaling the troops to ensure enforcement of the Digital Markets Act -
Australia's new competition minister is determined to focus on the high degree of concentration seen across the country's economy -
House committee has approved comprehensive privacy legislation, the prospects of passage by the full chamber and in the Senate are less certain -
Japanese automakers are under increasing pressure to pay for standard essential patents, or SEPs, for connected cars -
Japanese court verdict on restaurant-review platform’s interference with its search-engine algorithm to alter its ranking results -
A complaint against Amazon could be based on novel legal theories and resemble the Facebook case in its breadth -
Acquittal of five chicken industry executives by a jury in a price-fixing trial - third failed attempt by the US DOJ -
FTC employees are likely to be required to be back in the office for at least two days during each pay period -
The future of European sport will be invoked at back-to-back EU court hearings on skating and football. -
Shell and TotalEnergies's to store carbon dioxide in old gas fields, working together to help the environment. -
Investigating cartels without the aid of leniency applicants is like “searching in the dark,” Malaysia’s antitrust chief -
US Supreme Court sent a clear signal that it's ready to slap down federal agencies -
With its new probe against Vifor Pharma, the EU's antitrust enforcer is heading into new territory -
FTC member Phillips spoke with FTCWatch reporters, Phillips critiqued the views of the so-called neo-Brandeisians -
Qualcomm's resounding EU court victory today creates two massive headaches for the European Commission. -
Online platforms could see the final details of the EU's forthcoming content-moderation law fixed -
Companies in the UK’s digital and technology sectors can expect a hands-off approach to regulation, a senior government figure pledged -
Australian criminal-cartel prosecution linked to family-run Vina Money Transfer being hit with a $716,000 fine -
Khan's relationship with that staff was in tatters, according to a staff survey recently made public. -
Congressional backers of giving the FTC more powers to recover ill-gotten gains will need a host of skills -
Japanese stakeholders have mostly welcomed the industry ministry’s recent guidelines on licensing negotiations for essential technologies -
Australian commercial TV and radio broadcasters are demanding new codes of conduct -
Chinese courts using anti-suit injunctions against lawsuits in disputes over standard essential patents, or SEPs -
Big Tech faces the prospect of enforcers coordinating antitrust and regulatory probes at both the national and the European level -
The link between market competition and democracy is creating an intellectual tug-of-war between progressives and their conservative counterparts. -
FTC was deprived of some of its powers to obtain redress by the Supreme Court -
Japan published negotiation guidelines between the holders and users of standard essential patents. -
Elon Musk’s pledge to make “significant improvements” to Twitter after being appointed to its board -
uliana Domingues has been appointed the national competition authority's attorney general -
American Innovation and Choice Online Act, preventing Big Tech companies from preferencing their own products over third parties -
China’s SAMR sends questionnaires to foreign SEP holders over antitrust concerns in mobile licensingSAMR, is investigating cellular patent licensing practices in the country over antitrust concerns and has sent questionnaires to several foreign companies -
A planned prohibition on targeted advertising for children is causing trouble for negotiators on the EU’s Digital Services Act -
US Chamber of Commerce raise awareness about FTC actions the organization views as hostile to the American economy. -
Video-streaming tech championed by tech players has triggered EU antitrust questions over patent licensing terms -
Amex’s ability to charge significant fees via co-branding deals with the likes of KLM is under scrutiny at the highest Dutch court -
European Commission wants big online platforms like Google and Facebook to pay the EU to monitor their compliance with the new legislation. -
Economic headwinds are prompting Chinese leaders to orchestrate an all-out effort to shore up growth in the world's second-largest economy -
Meta Platforms for a decade has depended on user data harvested by other apps to power its advertising business -
A Supreme Court decision and indecision by Congress are spurring creativity at the Federal Trade Commission. -
Russia’s invasion of Ukraine certainly isn’t the first war chronicled online, social media and other Internet platforms -
EU industrial data should be shared between businesses to unlock its full potential, the draft Data Act says -
Big Tech threw everything it had in recent legal attempts to have four separate court disputes in Australia moved to a court in California — and failed. -
Google announced that it will gradually change the access to personal data of apps on the Android platform -
Electronics makers find themselves at loggerheads with EU debating whether to toughen standardization chargers -
UK competition regulator is under pressure to decide whether to mount enforcement action over the power of Big Tech -
Criminal-cartel prosecutions against Vina Money Transfer moved forward with regulator close to securing first antitrust jail sentence -
Supreme Court could pave the way for additional limits on the powers of the Federal Trade Commission -
DSA is heading into the final stage of the EU’s lawmaking process, with the broad outline becoming clear -
Intel’s win in the EU courts after a 13 year battle over the legality of chip rebates will give hope to the likes of Google -
Australia’s competition regulator is about to see its most significant leadership shakeup in more than a decade. -
Antitrust enforcement in Japan is beset with challenges, including a cultural tendency to seek error-free enforcement -
Australian judge now weighing up the evidence from BlueScope Steel price-fixing lawsuit -
Democrats and Republicans introduced a series of sweeping measures that would fundamentally change the shape of competition enforcement -
Singapore’s antitrust regulator continues to navigate the changing economic landscape due to the pandemic. -
Federal judges in the Northern District of California are frustrated on the demands for secrecy from companies that litigate privacy, antitrust and other disputes -
FTC approves only the most experienced, well-financed divestiture buyers to ensure that competition lost from a merger will be replaced or even enhanced. -
FTC Chair Lina Khan’s bold attempts to reshape the agency’s enforcement priorities could cause pushback from her adversaries on Capitol Hill.
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Apple and Google’s stranglehold on in-app payment services was targeted by world-first legislation in South Korea -
US government antitrust agencies take a dim view when a market is described as an “oligopoly” by a company evaluating a potential acquisition -
Amazon’s decision to block UK-issued Visa credit cards has called the payment giant’s bluff and may be enough to bring its fees down. -
Commissioner Christine Wilson issued a scathing public indictment of the Democratic leadership of the US Federal Trade Commission. -
The court victory over Google offers a roaring vindication for EU competition boss Margrethe Vestager's uncompromising pursuit of Google on antitrust grounds. -
Mark Zuckerberg sees the immersive computing platform of the "metaverse" as the future of his company, now rebranded from Facebook to Meta. -
Google announced that it will reduce its up-front commission fee for digital subscriptions on its Play Store. -
Apple hopes to shore up its control of the App Store by convincing a California federal judge to sign off on a contentious settlement. -
Can a law enforcement agency relying on secrecy to do its work be democratized? Federal Trade Commission Chair -
Heated debates between the Brazilian competition authority's Tribunal members over the powers of a councilor and a president -
Google's fight against four integral elements of the EU's overarching antitrust case triggered questions from an EU judge -
Restrictions on the way Apple’s iPhone and iPad interact with "wearable" devices have triggered questions from EU -
The South Korean competition regulator's decision to fine Google for abuse of dominance in the Android OS market -
Apple’s qualified court victory against Epic Games in the antitrust case over the App Store. -
US FTC Christine Wilson, in an interview with MLex, outlined a broad critique of agency Chair Lina Khan -
Google is the target of a fresh EU antitrust probe over its Android operating system to sideline rival voice assistants -
Google and Facebook executives should face criminal antitrust scrutiny from US federal prosecutors -
State AGs are decisive allies to the FTC and are on the vanguard of protecting American consumers. -
The new head of a national task force geared at coordinating state competition enforcement
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FTC to embrace the theories of “New Brandeisian” antirust could alienate some of the agency’s most valuable staffers.
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When Congress discusses ways to change the rules regarding how the Federal Trade Commission operates. -
Apple and a handful of Big Tech companies make unique products that can't be replicated by competitors. -
US antitrust enforcers are partway through an investigation of the Lockheed Martin-Aerojet Rocketdyne combination -
The UK competition regulator’s efforts to raise its public profile have been given a boost by the government. -
President Joe Biden’s moves to ramp up antitrust enforcement could impact how companies do business -
The woes of ride-hailing app Didi have ushered in a new chapter in Beijing’s crackdown on the tech sector. -
EU Commission tells US court to limit the disclosure of documents in a class action against salmon companies. -
Two former foreign exchange traders have been effectively vindicated in an obscure US agency's enforcement action. -
Federal Trade Commission is fending off attacks from a growing chorus of congressional critics. Next steps are crucial -
US President Joe Biden unveiled a sweeping executive order on competition which boasts of strong measures -
Google has fended off a fresh raid on its “crown jewels,” the secret algorithms behind its lucrative search-engine rankings. -
EU competition officials are back to their tough old selves as Europe emerges from the Covid-19 pandemic -
Allowing national competition authorities to enforce the DMA is probably the European Commission's best bet. -
Gone are the days in when no one was held accountable for anything in the digital-advertising market. -
YouTube. The advertiser-facing side of the adtech market. Google’s efforts to grapple with privacy rules. -
If personnel drives policy, look for the FTC to wallop Big Tech with Lina Khan sworn in as the youngest-ever chairwoman.
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Smart devices are the technology of the future, but they're suffering from the antitrust ailments of the past. -
Congressional Democrats are speeding up their efforts to ensure the FTC is given statutory power to recover ill-gotten gains. -
Google told app developers that by late 2021, a unique device-identifying code that Android apps use to target ads to individuals will be off-limits if a user opts out of personalized advertising. -
That a jury would require no more than half a day to deliberate at the end of an 11-week trial was a bad omen for Australia’s federal prosecutors. -
The world’s largest tech companies including Amazon.com, Apple, Google and Facebook should be the clear targets of an EU law on gatekeeper power. -
Facebook will continue to face an order not to process data from its unit WhatsApp in Germany and a lawsuit in India over the app’s new privacy policy. -
An antitrust claim against the richest league in world football from one of its own clubs was always going to be the legal equivalent of a must-see match. -
After three years on the Federal Trade Commission, Noah Phillips says comity still exists among commissioners. -
Tuxedo-wearing bananas and pornography are two subjects that have come up with surprisingly regularity at the Epic Games versus Apple antirust trial. -
The Biden administration and lawmakers are working on ways to beef up antitrust enforcement in the healthcare sector. -
Taboola today disclosed that the company and others in its industry are under criminal investigation by the US Department of Justice antitrust division for their hiring activities. -
China has proved to Big Tech that its antitrust-oversight capability isn't limited to the SAMR. -
House Democrats unveiled language that grants the Federal Trade Commission the right to seek financial restitution for unfair and deceptive practices. -
Behavioral remedies often don’t deliver, the Competition and Markets Authority's chief executive has said. -
Antitrust accusations will fly in both directions. New European Super League will be accused of a closed-door stitch-up. -
If the Supreme Court limits the FTC’s ability to obtain redress, the agency will likely concentrate on alternate ways of enforcing existing rules. -
Google's promise of a 10 percent “win rate” for Facebook in display advertising auctions is at the heart of the antitrust argument by several US states. -
Google has acknowledged its advertising agreement with Facebook allowed the companies to terminate the deal “in the event of certain government investigations" -
Capping a decade of litigation ruling Google’s copying elements of Java to create Android OS was legal fair use. -
Spending on expert witnesses at the US Federal Trade Commission reached a five-year peak. -
Rebecca Kelly Slaughter is reshaping the political and policy aspects of her role of Federal Trade Commission chair to get the job permanently.
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Representatives from companies including Qualcomm, Apple, Huawei and Continental have clashed at a the IEEE meeting. -
Forcing Facebook and Google to break up their datasets to make it easier for rival adtech to enter and compete -
Senate and House lawmakers are beginning the hard work of trying to find common ground between the parties about how to overhaul the nation’s antitrust laws.
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Renewed interest among US lawmakers in antitrust legislation is unlikely to produce radical policy shifts. -
The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers’ reaccreditation by the American National Standards Institute has stirred controversy. -
Alleged interest rate fixing in Lithuania following the 2008 financial crisis needs to be investigated by EU authorities as market abuse. -
An administrative scrap over which group of EU lawmakers gets to lead scrutiny of a new law to curb the power of the biggest platforms reveals the tensions. -
Learn more about Federal Trade Commission Chairwoman Rebecca Slaughter's strategy for dealing with privacy issues.
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Apple and Samsung may be tapped for data on the market for smartphone chips to assist a planned UK mass damages lawsuit against Qualcomm. -
The decision to kick Australian media off the platform was a show of strength from Facebook. -
A highly anticipated EU report on standard-essential patents has laid bare the problem: There's no sign of peace. -
The FTC has gained allies on Capitol Hill as House Democrats appear willing to give the agency more to go after companies that hurt consumers. -
As the UK’s emerging collective-action regime finds it feet, eyes are focused on this significant “carriage dispute”.
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Lawyers for Google, Texas and nine other states had their first in-person skirmish in a US federal courthouse.
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Large online platforms could be held responsible for hosting misleading financial-market information or abuse, EU regulators have suggested. -
US regulators and private law firms have struggled to attract African American talent to their ranks, leading to poor representation at the most senior levels. -
Apple & Google’s UK lawsuits from Epic Games over their lucrative app store governance not only re-expose the US tech titans to rising antitrust risk, but also broaden litigation. -
Facebook and Google would be forced to break up their datasets.
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The small number of African American attorneys practicing antitrust, both in government and the private sector, hasn’t gone unnoticed. -
Proposals for EU powers to fine “very large” platforms up to 6% of their annual revenue for violating rules on hate speech and the sale of illegal goods will spark a debate. -
The executive committee of state attorneys general heading the antitrust investigation into Google convened for another regular planning call. -
Freshly filed antitrust cases against Google and Facebook are slated to play out in the months, and almost certainly years, ahead. -
Google colluded with Facebook in a bid to maintain its dominance over the online display-advertising market, alleges an antitrust lawsuit filed. -
Sports-governing bodies will breathe a sigh of relief at a judgment from EU judges, despite siding against the International Skating Union. -
Proposed EU rules to force Big Tech companies to remove illegal content will establish a complex enforcement structure. -
Established Internet giants and tomorrow’s digital gatekeepers alike could face dawn raids, information demands and interview requests for top executives. -
Andrew Smith is confident the Federal Trade Commission is in a better place today than when he arrived more than two years ago.
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Brent Snyder says his over three years as Hong Kong’s top antitrust official have left him with fond memories. -
EU banks hope the expansion of their new payments initiative will ease antitrust concerns that the planned rival to Visa and Mastercard is a closed shop. -
Nokia and Daimler's spat over licensing standard-essential patents for connected cars has spurred the German government into action. -
Google will soon face a pair of new multistate antitrust suits backed by bipartisan groups of US state attorneys general. -
A recent competition hearing involving South Korea’s Internet giant Naver has raised an issue: reverse discrimination. -
Would-be foreign investors into UK companies have seen the government this week lay out a regime for screening deals under national-security grounds that is so far-ranging. -
Amazon.com’s data-driven business model and its dizzy expansion have prompted a pioneering European Commission probe into Big Data online. -
WhatsApp, Signal and other messaging services may face new EU obligations to cooperate with law-enforcement agencies. -
It seems like a safe bet that Federal Trade Commission member Rohit Chopra is a pessimist.
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At a time when once arcane issues involving antitrust are making headlines, it’s doubtful a newly elected Congress will succeed in tackling such big matters. -
New EU legislation that would impose restrictions on the likes of Facebook, Amazon and Google is facing headwinds. -
US antitrust policy hasn’t seen major shifts in enforcement between presidential administrations in decades.
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Google’s online advertising business and the importance of data for competition have been at the forefront of Europe’s antitrust debate for the last half-decade
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The European Commission is grouping together its initiatives relating to the functioning of online markets — including plans to regulate gatekeeper platforms — in a proposal called the Digital Markets Act. -
Google pushed back on the US Department of Justice’s claim that it used a network of exclusivity agreements to illegally extend the company's monopoly on search and digital advertising.
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A complaint against Google filed today by the US Department of Justice is the spitting image of EU findings from 2018 into Android. -
Rarely has an antitrust suit generated as much public hype as Epic’s move to take on Apple. -
Singapore’s recently published e-commerce market study may have found no current competition issues to worry about in the sector. -
Facebook is seeking a forensic investigation into the electronic communications of an app developer accused of leaking sensitive company documents. -
The new head of Japan’s antitrust regulator vowed to chase after digital businesses as needed. -
Not many bosses of government agencies find the time to write a book while doing their day job. -
US Federal Trade Commission member Rebecca Slaughter wants to start a conversation about how antitrust enforcement can reckon with systemic racism.
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Apple and Google's app stores have been causing a wave of concern for antitrust regulators recently that began in the EU and US. -
Google has found itself at the center of antitrust scrutiny and growing complaints by local app developers in South Korea.
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The UK government's draft laws to change parts of the divorce agreement with the EU would waive its obligations to keep Northern Ireland under EU state aid rules. -
With just days to serve, JFTC chief urges Japanese companies to use antitrust law to their advantageThe outgoing head of Japan’s competition authority called on Japanese companies to more assertively use antitrust laws to their advantage.
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Years ago, Harris announced a deal with the largest app platforms that would require a privacy policy display before users download an app. -
Connected-car patent pool Avanci’s 5G licensing program was approved by the US Department of Justice. -
Allianz Global Investors & other fund managers scored a win, as a UK judge agreed to their request to re-plead an antitrust lawsuit. -
When Australian senior antitrust official fronted an online media scrum in Sydney, his message to the world’s digital platforms was simple: it’s time to grow up. -
A patent-licensing dispute between Nokia and Daimler could create years of uncertainty for technology companies signing license agreements. -
Facebook's digital advertising is under scrutiny, with both US antitrust regulators investigating the company's conduct in the online ad market. -
Norwegian producers of farmed salmon can still be subject to an amended price-fixing lawsuit, a US federal judge ruled. -
Former car parts executive & convicted bid-rigger Eun Soo Kim wants out of the United States. -
Google’s appeal of a French injunction to negotiate with press publishers is a sharp judicial test for the French competition authority’s bold use of interim measures.
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The Texas Attorney General’s Office hit Google with a long list of questions about its ad-tech business and previewing a forthcoming antitrust lawsuit. -
Their stories are different, but Kim and Ullings underscore the difficulty antitrust conspirators face once they are targeted by US law enforcement. -
Tackling Big Tech’s challenges is a team effort, the UK’s competition regulator signaled. -
Football clubs around Europe are turning to antitrust rules in a bid to avoid relegation or secure a spot in lucrative European competitions. -
The Competition and Markets Authority, which today published the final report on its year-long market study into online platforms and digital advertising -
Lufthansa’s 9 billion-euro bailout package, approved by the European Commission and shareholders, will be talked about for years to come. -
The Daimler-Nokia patent-licensing dispute has drawn a third round of questions to market participants from the European Commission. -
John Elias, a prosecutor at the US Department of Justice's antitrust division, testified before the House Judiciary Committee about political pressure from Attorney General William Barr. -
US Attorney General Bill Barr last year ordered the in-depth probe of a cannabis industry merger that later collapsed, overruling Justice Department staff. -
Nokia, Sharp, Daimler, Continental & others fighting over licensing technology in connected cars may see their dispute effectively fast-tracked. -
Investigations of the App Store and Apple Pay are latest enforcement initiatives designed to tackle digital platform operators -
Google, Facebook & other Big Tech companies can expect increased EU scrutiny & a set of new regulations targeting their businesses in the bloc. -
Companies using algorithms to set prices & manage suppliers, as well as concentrated sectors such as mobile telephony or air transport, could be some of the surprise victims of new proposal for new EU powers. -
Facebook, Amazon.com and other tech giants could see a new watchdog emerge from EU plans to curb the power of “gatekeeper” online services.
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Arizona’s chief law enforcement official wants Google to know he’s girding for “the long slog” of litigation after filing suit over location tracking of consumers. -
A planned mass damages claim against UK train operators over fares won’t be derailed. -
The US Justice Department, ramping up plans for potential antitrust litigation against Google, is contacting outside attorneys to lead the government's case. -
Chinese local authorities will have to scrutinize standards that they have imposed on businesses such as those relating to market exit & government funding, as part of a nationwide campaign.
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Pity the EU merger officials whose work sets them the near-impossible task of predicting how the world economy will look after Covid-19. -
China's antitrust regulator doesn't consider the economic hardship brought by the Covid-19 as a legitimate mitigating factor to reduce fines. -
Digital "gatekeepers" such as Apple, Facebook & Amazon could face a new EU law curbing them from exploiting combined data sets. -
Retailers exploiting the coronavirus outbreak with price hikes could soon see tougher enforcement by the UK CMA -
This week’s announcement that Facebook had secured nearly 10% of Reliance Jio, India’s largest Internet provider, was light on detail & revealed little about the partnership. -
As a number of governments across the Asia-Pacific region struggle with how to ensure they still have a functioning aviation industry once Covid-19 restrictions ease. -
While there have been scores of national support measures approved under the EU's temporary coronavirus state aid framework, strikingly only Denmark has made extensive use of an alternative mechanism. -
Companies providing in-home health care services are facing antitrust scrutiny from criminal prosecutors at the US Department of Justice. -
The regulatory push against online booking platforms such as Booking.com and Expedia appears to have lost momentum in Europe. -
Deliveroo demonstrated the impact the coronavirus is having on antitrust priorities with news that Amazon's investment in the outfit has provisionally cleared. -
Regulatory overlap and turf wars in S Korea, from a request to the Korea Fair Trade Commission to refer McDonald’s Korea for franchise law and subcontracting allegations.
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US DOJ says a former exec of Continental Automotive Korea was extradited to the US and pleaded guilty for his role in a global auto-parts cartel. -
Apple is under increasing antitrust scrutiny at the US Department of Justice, with investigators fielding complaints about multiple business practices at the iPhone maker, MLex has learned. -
Online platforms including Twitter, Facebook and Google’s YouTube are in the spotlight over their role as global vectors for misinformation related to the Covid-19 pandemic. -
Federal Trade Commission chairmen try for unanimity on big cases and policy statements. But the agency’s partisan divide on new vertical merger guidelines is symptomatic of the broader ideological division on antitrust issues. -
Dominant digital platforms would need to meet strict — and still undefined — criteria to be classified as “essential facilities,” EU antitrust chief Margrethe Vestager has said. -
It’s less than 10 days since Australia’s competition regulator said it was anticipating an increase in applications from companies seeking exemptions from competition laws to ensure they not only deliver essential services to citizens during the outbreak of the Covid-19 virus, but survive the economic uncertainty caused by the global pandemic -
As the states' antitrust probe of Google takes shape, Iowa, Utah, Tennessee and New York have emerged as additional key states in investigations of the three pillars of Google’s business: advertising, search and Android, MLex has learned. -
Questions have been raised and discussed in various webinars and online conferences organized separately by antitrust regulators in Asia.
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Europe’s airlines, struck down by the Covid-19 pandemic, shouldn’t expect a free rein from the European Commission on receiving emergency bailouts from national governments. -
Players in the pharmaceutical and medical industries are under scrutiny in Brazil for increasing their prices in a "non-reasonable and disproportionate way” in relation to product demand as Covid-19 spreads in the country, the competition authority's top investigator, Alexandre Cordeiro, told MLex. -
Peru recently initiated Latin America's first antitrust program aimed at fighting cartels by rewarding individuals who blow the whistle on anticompetitive conduct. -
Online retailers using pricing algorithms that lead to pricing collusion, whether directly or indirectly, should be held responsible for any anticompetitive misconduct arising from that, the head of Portugal's competition authority has said. -
Registries of the beneficial owners of companies should become a universal standard, UK parliament member Andrew Mitchell said today, adding that current US legislation would provide an impetus for better law enforcement against illicit financial dealings throughout the world. -
Big Tech companies operating in the UK will get an early sense of what lies ahead for them.
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Don't be fooled by the latest eruption of fire and brimstone from big EU countries pushing for a loosening of the bloc's merger rules to allow the creation of "European champions." -
Google is "overwhelmingly dominant" and its algorithms "consigned rival services to the darkness that lies beyond Page 2" of its search results, the European Commission told EU judges today. -
State attorneys general are trying to build teams that will continue their bipartisan antitrust investigations into the tech industry, even if they don't win reelection, Colorado Attorney General Phil Weiser told MLex. -
While the multistate antitrust investigation of Google is initially focused on its powerful and central position in the advertising technology business, the probe will soon broaden into other aspects of Google's business, the Texas attorney general's office has informed the Internet giant. -
Lawyers for former Australia & New Zealand Banking Group executive Rick Moscati will find out on Friday which documents they'll be able to use to prepare their defense in a landmark criminal-cartel case against ANZ, Citigroup Global Markets and Deutsche Bank Australia, as well as six former employees at the banks. The decision on document access was confirmed by a local court in Sydney this week. -
Barclays, Citibank, others must compensate 'wronged' forex market players, says UK mass-lawsuit leadBarclays, Citibank and Royal Bank of Scotland are among six banks at risk from a planned UK mass lawsuit against them over foreign-exchange rate-rigging because thousands of market participants have been "wronged," the man heading up the claim has said. -
Unilateral conduct will continue to be a priority for the Brazilian competition authority's investigatory unit for the next two years, the agency's top investigator told MLex in a recent interview, citing a probe into Google's alleged uses of mobile-device operating system Android as one of the agency's most important cases involving digital markets. -
News of a federal judge approving amendments sought by 16 states to Live Nation’s settlement with the Justice Department didn’t tell the full story. -
Companies charged with breaking EU merger procedures may get fine reductions if they agree to cooperate with investigators. -
Seven executives of various pharmaceutical companies and distributors, including an executive of the local branch of French pharma giant Sanofi, have been arrested by the South Korean prosecutors' office as part of its first independent antitrust probe, which is targeting bid-rigging schemes in public tenders for vaccines and is likely to expand to cover more major South Korean and global pharmaceutical companies, MLex has learned. -
The Peruvian competition authority plans to help draw up an antitrust policy aimed at reducing barriers to entry, business bureaucracy and price-fixing, as well as to implement a pre-merger notification system. -
The Peruvian competition authority has submitted a formal request to join the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development's Competition Committee, the agency's head, Ivo pi, told MLex. -
For drugmakers Pfizer and Flynn Pharma as well as the UK's antitrust authority, the holiday season may offer a brief diversion from a landmark UK court dispute that will dog them well into next year. -
China's approach to a couple of US-linked transactions in 2020 is set to answer some persistent questions on the country's merger control. -
Lawyers for Australia & New Zealand Banking Group, Citigroup Global Markets and Deutsche Bank Australia had a clear goal when they entered a local Sydney court on Dec. 5 to cross-examine witnesses in the criminal-cartel case against the lenders. -
In a wide-ranging, hour-long telephone interview from Paris where he was attending the OECD Global Forum on Competition, Makan Delrahim pulled no punches. -
Scotland's principal arts funding agency is breaking antitrust rules with a key grant program and must be stopped, a Scottish publisher has urged judges in the latest test of fast-track procedures designed to give individuals and small businesses with competition-law grievances quick access to justice. -
Several executives of South Korean pharmaceutical companies have been arrested by the country’s prosecutors’ office in its first independent antitrust probe since the inauguration of the new prosecutor-general, with investigators suspecting collusive schemes on public tenders among dozens of vaccine producers and distributors covering a wide swathe of the South Korean vaccine market. -
In the latest antitrust case against Facebook, the US FTC has to convince a judge that their acquisitions would have been significant competitors. -
Japanese vendors at the nation’s largest online mall Rakuten have formed a union in an attempt to gain better negotiating power, breaking the tradition in Japan of docile business partners of large companies, as the competition regulator tightens scrutiny over abusive dealings by big digital platforms with smaller business partners. -
Qualcomm’s loss in its appeal in South Korea may haunt the US chip giant’s global cellular chip business, with a Seoul court siding with the decision by the Korea Fair Trade Commission for the majority of its 2016 decision, including the relevant markets set by the regulator. -
A probe of German carmakers Daimler, Volkswagen and BMW by China's antitrust regulator over possible collusion in emissions controls was driven by a leniency application filed with the authority, MLex has learned. -
Google’s data collection has attracted the scrutiny of EU antitrust regulators, MLex understands, opening a new front against the search-engine company. -
After five years at the helm of the European Commission’s powerful antitrust watchdog, Margrethe Vestager still has unfinished business. -
Starbucks’ successful challenge before an EU court against a European Commission decision ordering it to pay millions in extra taxes to the Netherlands will not be appealed, the bloc’s competition boss Margrethe Vestager has told MLex. -
Google risks losing its secret “crown jewels." That was its stark message as it waits for a UK court ruling on whether it must hand over confidential information on key technology underpinning its search engine. -
South Korean Internet company Naver has been issued an examiners’ report on the antitrust investigation by the Korea Fair Trade Commission for alleged "self-preferencing" of its services in search results. -
EU antitrust chief Margrethe Vestager is facing her first major policy test in her double role as competition commissioner and digital regulator as she weighs whether to start a formal investigation into Nokia’s licensing of mobile technology used in Internet-connected cars. -
United Therapeutics and Smiths Medical restricted shipments to pharmacies of specialized syringes that deliver a life-saving drug used to treat a serious lung condition, according to allegations in confidential material from a court filing in an antitrust suit. -
Facebook sent the US Federal Trade Commission confidential documents belonging to a now-defunct startup that has waged a closely watched four-and-a-half-year legal battle against the social network, MLex has learned. -
Last week, a variety of attorneys and scholars crowded into a meeting hall at the University of Utah in Salt Lake City to discuss the future of antitrust enforcement. -
German conglomerate Siemens’ appeal against an antitrust case decision by South Korea's competition regulator will produce a verdict before the end of the year, MLex has learned. -
Gulf utility providers file damages suits against Prysmian, others over power-cable cartel -
An antitrust investigation into BMW, Ford, Honda and Volkswagen related to California car-emissions standards was recommended by policy officials, not prosecutors, at the US Department of Justice, MLex has learned. -
When New Zealand scrapped the joint-venture exemptions under the country’s competition law in 2017, few mourned their passing. “They were a dog,” one lawyer told MLex recently. “They were form over substance and very difficult to apply.” -
Australia’s competition regulator could use criminal obstruction charges leveled at former BlueScope Steel manager Jason Ellis as an example for future cartel probes, an ex-US Department of Justice official has said. -
The UK government’s approval of Heathrow Airport’s planned expansion was wrongly cleared by judges of breaching state-aid and antitrust rules, project bidder Heathrow Hub will tell the UK's appeal court on Wednesday 23 October. -
Facebook’s access to data through interfaces such as Login and Social Plugins is in the sights of EU antitrust enforcers in fresh questionnaires probing the impact of the company’s “Marketplace” on classified ad businesses, MLex has learned. -
The scrutiny signals the European Commission’s growing interest in the new digital frontiers of payment technologies after it started taking a closer look at Facebook’s Libra cryptocurrency earlier this year. -
Carmakers’ incentives to keep vehicle data to themselves and not share them fairly with repairers and companies offering new services such as navigation should prompt scrutiny from EU antitrust authorities, a consumer group has said. -
The South Korean unit of French medical contrast agent manufacturer Guerbet is being investigated over an alleged refusal to sell the substance to South Korean drug suppliers, MLex has learned. -
EU's Google Shopping decision taught lessons and influenced behavior, says company lawyer -
Ride-hailing firm Grab may have escaped Malaysian scrutiny over its controversial merger with rival Uber last year, but it is now facing the biggest antitrust fine yet in that country for alleged abuse of dominance practices. -
The Justice Department has been weighing in on more antitrust cases over the past two years in an effort to help shape the law. In 19 instances where DOJ has weighed in, the courts have adopted the DOJ’s views in eight and rejected them in five, according to an MLex analysis. Six other matters resolved without a decision addressing the DOJ's concerns.
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US investigators scrutinizing Facebook for potential antitrust violations have zeroed in on the social network’s acquisition in 2013 of an Israeli mobile analytics startup, Onavo. -
Google’s controversial project to host and accelerate the delivery of mobile web pages has emerged as a centerpiece of a multistate group’s probe into whether the Internet giant violated state or federal antitrust laws by moving to dominate the online advertising ecosystem -
GSK, Generics UK, Alpharma and others have appeared at the EU’s top court to ask judges to clarify a number of legal questions around "pay-for-delay" cases in the pharmaceutical sector, after they were collectively fined 45 million pounds ($56 million) in 2016 by the UK’s antitrust watchdog. -
Apple's obligation to pay 13 billion euros ($14.3 billion) in Irish taxes was based on an EU "distortion" of national tax law and defied "common sense," lawyers for the iPhone maker and Ireland told judges today. -
US state attorneys general are seeking information from Google on its previous acquisitions of Double-Click, AdMob and Admeld, along with its advertising contracts and pricing. While Google has been the subject of dozens of antitrust investigations around the world, the state probe is among the first to directly question the search giant on how it has come to dominate the online advertising world. -
EU competition commissioners have traditionally stood alone, maintaining a healthy distance from the business of policymaking as they wield the sweeping quasi-judicial powers that set them apart from their peers. -
A last-minute change to UK government plans will make the UK's antitrust watchdog responsible for post-Brexit oversight of merger commitments made by companies in a clutch of multibillion-dollar deals, under legislation meant to plug an "enforcement gap" in a "no deal" scenario. -
As Google faces a raft of probes in various jurisdictions, an industry player in China has lodged a complaint with the country's competition regulator, alleging anticompetitive behavior by the US tech giant, MLex has learned. -
Going after Tencent Music Entertainment is a bold step for China's competition regulator, not only because it is the country's first antitrust probe involving a domestic tech giant, but also because the case is constructed on novel legal grounds that would extend the agency's regulatory expertise. -
The number of states interested in joining an antitrust or privacy investigation of Google and other tech giants has significantly expanded in recent days, with a majority of US states now signing on to the effort, MLex has learned. -
As US regulators gear up to examine competition among technology companies, international jurisdictions have identified a potential vulnerability for Apple: parental control apps. -
Facebook's Libra has attracted the interest of the EU competition regulator, which is fitness-checking it against a few classic collusion concerns as well as some more novel regulatory theories, to judge by questionnaires it sent out this summer. -
The state attorneys general and US antitrust agencies have a long history of working together on major conduct cases, starting with the landmark Microsoft case in the 1990s. As the states move forward with antitrust probes into Google and Facebook, how well they are able to work with federal antitrust officials looking into the same conduct remains an open question. -
When word got out last week that Norwegian shipping line Wallenius Wilhelmsen Ocean had been added to a growing list of companies on the receiving end of criminal-cartel prosecutions in Australia, there was some surprise among the country’s competition-law practitioners. -
Amazon's practice of penalizing sellers offering lower prices on other websites is emerging as a focus of third-party complaints in the US Federal Trade Commission's antitrust investigation of the e-commerce giant, MLex has learned. -
The way digital platforms handle consumer data will be scrutinized in the future under the Japanese antitrust law, the competition regulator said today in a draft proposal. By expanding the reach of the antitrust law’s provisions on the abuse of superior bargaining position to business-to-consumer transactions for the first time, the Japan Fair Trade Commission is preparing to enter new territory where competition and data-protection issues merge. -
Facebook and Google will be the preliminary focus as about 20 state attorneys general begin an antitrust investigation into the tech industry that could be formally announced as soon as next month, MLex has learned.
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Aspen Pharmacare's unprecedented offer of a payout to the UK's public healthcare system to resolve competition concerns shows that disputes between drugmakers and the UK antitrust regulator need not always end in a legal quagmire. -
Casio's UK antitrust fine is a warning to companies that the Competition and Markets Authority remains hot on the trail of manufacturers that dictate a price floor to retailers — but also a reminder of the potential for enforcers to fall behind as they strive to keep up with digital innovation. -
Investment banks alerted to antitrust litigation risk after UK class lawsuit -
Top music labels Universal Music Group, Sony Music Entertainment and Warner Music Group have been questioned by China's antitrust regulator over potentially anticompetitive exclusive-licensing agreements with Chinese music streaming service Tencent Music Entertainment, MLex has learned. -
Tackling the likes of Google, Facebook and other tech giants may be helped by a new generation of start-ups helping users reclaim their data, the co-author of an influential report has said, serving up an alternative to intervention by antitrust regulators. -
Qualcomm’s fight to reverse massive fines and business-model-changing corrective orders imposed by South Korean competition regulator is nearing its end. The US chipmaker and the Korea Fair Trade Commission are due to present their final arguments on August 12 and 14 after an intense showdown lasting from October 2018 until two months ago. -
Just about every adult in the UK has a reason to tune in when Mastercard’s bid to halt a planned mass lawsuit over its card fees reaches the UK's highest court. -
State attorneys general are moving ahead with antitrust probes of major tech companies such as Google in the wake of a meeting with Justice Department officials last week. -
Boris Johnson’s government has inherited a deep in-tray of reforms to UK competition and consumer law. But with a gridlocked parliament, and an administration zeroed in on Brexit, there’s no guarantee of progress soon. -
E.On has warned the UK's antitrust regulator that a price-cap mechanism for customers who pay upfront for their energy is harming competition among the country’s suppliers. -
The US Federal Trade Commission is seeking sales data from third-party retailers using Amazon to hawk their goods, MLex has learned. -
Teva Pharmaceuticals will pay $69 million to settle allegations from California's attorney general that it unlawfully delayed generic entry of the sleep drug Provigil. -
After nearly two years of service, the US Department of Justice’s international antitrust policy chief left his post yesterday to return to his professorship at Notre Dame Law School. In his wake are commitments from over 70 — and counting — foreign competition agencies to adhere to minimum due-process standards he played a key role in developing. -
A fight between E.Leclerc and the French government over the supermarket chain’s buyer alliance with a German peer has breathed new life into a debate about whether such agreements are in breach of EU competition law. -
Qualcomm's 242 million-euro fine ($272 million) sees the European Commission dusting off its enforcement tools on predatory pricing, which have lain dormant for some 16 years. -
Amazon.com’s use of data has raised concerns with EU competition regulators, who today said they were opening a formal investigation into the e-commerce giant. -
Citing Qualcomm’s “likelihood of success on the merits,” the US Justice Department asked a federal appeals court to delay a decision that would require the company to renegotiate its licenses worldwide and on fair, reasonable, and nondiscriminatory terms. -
Airlines risk facing new barriers to operate on routes to and from the UK as the government seeks to draw up post-Brexit air-transport agreements, the country's competition regulator has warned. -
A relatively small jurisdiction at the bottom of the world, more than 12,000 kilometers from Silicon Valley, is about to launch a regulatory experiment that could have a lasting effect on the business models of platforms such as Facebook and Google. The world’s technology giants are bracing for what Australia has in store. -
Facebook is facing the prospect of EU antitrust scrutiny after investigators issued questionnaires to other online operators targeting the social network, MLex has learned. -
International Business Machines' receipt of EU approval for its $34 billion buyout of open-source pioneer Red Hat came in the end with a whimper, not a bang. -
Federal prosecutors have asked a court to stay civil litigation accusing Tyson, Pilgrim's Pride and other chicken suppliers of price-fixing because of a criminal antitrust investigation. -
Salesforce.com, a serial acquirer, has purchased dozens of companies with hardly a regulatory hiccup. That may be about to change -
When Australia’s ground-breaking digital-platforms inquiry into the impact of Facebook and Google on the media and advertising industries hands its final report to the government at the end of this month, all eyes will be on how the competition regulator has dealt with a handful of hot-button issues. -
Google has been targeted in a Brazilian antitrust probe over its alleged use of the Android operating system to dominate the mobile device market, MLex has learned. -
Calls for the establishment of a digital regulator to monitor Facebook and Google’s use of algorithms in ranking online content are expected to feature prominently in the final report on Australia’s world-first inquiry into the impact of digital platforms on the advertising and news industries. -
Tech giants such as Amazon, Facebook and Google should be subject to updated competition rules that force them to share data and allow EU authorities to investigate their market dominant position, Mona Keijzer, the Dutch state secretary for economic affairs, told MLex. -
The application of 5G technology in sectors other than telecommunications won’t result in regulatory issues being beyond the purview of Hong Kong’s communications watchdog, its chairwoman says. -
The burden of proving an antitrust violation beyond reasonable doubt before a court is weighty, but not impossible for Hong Kong’s Competition Commission, its chief says. -
Key aspects of a federal court decision that Qualcomm’s patent-licensing practices violate the law rest on controversial antitrust and patent precedents, opening obvious avenues of appeal for the chipmaker. -
Are Nokia’s patent-licensing practices holding up research and development investment among makers of automotive components? -
Consumer privacy and security have been harmed by Facebook’s domination of the social networking market, and it needs to be broken up and regulated, the company’s co-founder said. -
AB InBev's 200 million-euro settlement with the European Commission will be closely studied by antitrust enforcers across Europe, who will see the upside of lowering the cost of citizens' weekly shop. -
Israel’s Teva Pharmaceuticals, the world’s largest generic drug manufacturer, conspired with more than a dozen other generic drug makers to fix prices on a myriad of generic drugs, attorneys general from 43 states and Puerto Rico said. -
Companies conveying a false impression of scarcity to consumers could face more regulation in the Netherlands, as the Authority for Consumers and Markets is investigating such behavior, the watchdog’s president has said. -
Drugmaker Leadiant Biosciences faces questions over whether it is restricting the supply of raw materials for a rare-disease drug as part of a broader Dutch probe into excessive pricing for that treatment. -
Canada's Competition Bureau intends to step up enforcement and more quickly challenge companies in court, bureau head Matthew Boswell said today. -
How can antitrust enforcers stop tech companies from moving fast and breaking things?
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Siblings often squabble. The two US antitrust authorities, the Department of Justice and its sister agency the Federal Trade Commission, usually do it behind closed doors. -
There’s a growing consensus among Australian legal practitioners on why the country’s competition regulator is calling for law changes to help it assess mergers of technology companies based not on what the parties look like today, but what they’re likely to become tomorrow. -
As cars integrate ever more technology, a legal fight is brewing over whether the holders of connectivity-related patents should offer licenses to the makers of the relevant car parts, or of the cars as a whole. -
US antitrust enforcers may have been too quick to discard ideas about predatory pricing and essential facilities, especially in connection with big technology companies, a US appeals court judge and antitrust expert said. -
Surescripts, the US's largest e-prescription network, has been sued by the US Federal Trade Commission, which alleged that the company monopolized the market by including loyalty provisions in its contracts with customers since 2009. -
Mastercard plans to take its fight against a proposed mass lawsuit over its card fees to the UK’s highest court. -
Cybersecurity vendors including CrowdStrike, Symantec and ESET are under the microscope at the Justice Department for their role in potentially excluding third-party testing services that don’t adhere to particular standards, MLex has learned. -
The settlement announced today between Apple and Qualcomm is a huge win for both companies, but much less so for the US Federal Trade Commission. -
JetBlue’s planned foray across the Atlantic is breathing new life into a debate about whether joint-venture agreements between legacy airlines are anticompetitive — and positioning the US budget carrier to take advantage of any regulatory crackdown. -
With its new Apple probe, the Dutch antitrust regulator has carved out a niche in a crowded field as competition officials across Europe train their focus on smartphone app stores. -
After years of intensive litigation and licensing negotiations, Qualcomm and Apple settled their multibillion dollar dispute on confidential terms today as opening arguments in an antitrust and breach of contract trial were wrapping up. -
Universal Music Group, one of the world's biggest music labels, is cooperating fully with China's competition regulator in an investigation of the country's online music-licensing market, MLex has learned. -
A rapacious Qualcomm has held the smartphone industry hostage, using its monopoly power over cellular modem chips to extract unreasonable patent fees from Apple and the rest of the market. -
Until relatively recently, there was little to indicate that Australia was on the cusp on a regulatory push that might keep Silicon Valley’s most powerful companies awake at night. -
Printeos suffered discrimination when the European Commission imposed price-fixing fines worth 19 million euros ($21 million) on five envelope-makers, a lawyer for the Spanish company told EU judges today. -
The Brazilian Ministry of Justice has recommended public attorney Vinicius Klein and economics professor Leonardo Bandeira Rezende to fill two of the councilor vacancies upcoming this year at Brazil's competition authority. -
Democrats vying to challenge President Donald Trump in 2020 told Iowa voters Saturday that the US needs to rethink its antitrust laws. -
Automotive manufacturers should license patents at the level of the final car, not the makers of individual components, to ensure the end product runs all the necessary technology, a senior lawyer at Nokia said. -
Japan’s competition authority, which is in the midst of two studies into digital platforms such as Amazon, Apple and Google, is open to the idea that these markets “may require a new antitrust approach,” a commissioner said. -
Antitrust regulators need to reconsider which tech companies are immune from any liability related to the content they publish, US Federal Trade Commission member Rohit Chopra said today. Tech companies’ convergence with digital advertising has pushed them outside the protection of Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act, the Democrat said.
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Since a recent change in policy by the US Department of Justice to streamline merger reviews, all new investigations are on track for closing within six months, a senior DOJ official said. -
China’s competition authority will adopt a “tolerant and prudent” approach toward the digital economy in a bid to encourage innovation, making clear its enforcement strategy toward the country’s growing technology sector, its top antitrust official said today. -
Forcing the likes of Google, Facebook and Amazon to sell off business units to curb their clout isn't necessary to inject more competition into tech markets, Philip Marsden, a co-author of a UK report on the tech industry, told MLex. -
Competition watchdogs around the globe are set to adopt a new framework on the due process rights of companies under investigation, a senior US Department of Justice official said, adding that a US-led initiative had helped bolster the International Competition Network's text. -
Brand owners can’t use intellectual property rights to restrict cross-border sales of goods in the EU, the European Commission indicated today in its decision to fine Nike, in a case that is likely to set a precedent for ongoing and future merchandising investigations. -
EU laws governing mergers, antitrust and state aid must take account of the challenges of a globalized economy and new technologies, the European Council said today after France and Germany pushed for changes to a summit communiqué. -
Last week, Japanese competition regulators revoked a previous finding that Qualcomm had violated the country’s Antimonopoly Act, handing a much-needed victory to the US chipmaker that has come under antitrust scrutiny around the world. -
HealthTronics and NextMed, two mobile health care providers, have agreed to merge, and the US Federal Trade Commission is investigating the deal's potential impact on competition with a focus on the companies' urology treatments, MLex has learned. -
Over the past 18 months, the Justice Department has announced only three new criminal cases, only one of which involved corporate charges — against several South Korean oil refiners for rigging bids on contracts with the Department of Defense. During that same time period, senior officials in the DOJ’s antitrust division have also nixed a number of proposed indictments and charges in several other cases, MLex has learned.
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Unfair competition from China has got the European Commission scrambling to come up with a solution that doesn’t involve loosening its merger laws. -