Antitrust is definitely heating up, even if the economy isn’t. This issue brings us current on a global scale by first looking at merger activity in the United States, England, and India. Then we bring our readers up-to-date with current authority activity, including the FTC vs. Google, criminalization in Australia, and further thoughts on the Italian Pfizer decision. We doubt, however, that these will be the last words on any of these subjects.
-
Merger Update
Deal Makers Beware: Recent Trends in U.S. Merger Enforcement
These cases also reaffirm that deals of any size and scope, in any industry, are potentially open to intense and costly antitrust scrutiny and challenge in court. Daniel E. Hemli & Jacqueline R. Java (Bracewell & Giuliani LLP)
The FCC’s Unstructured Role in Transactions
The FCC has come to play an increasingly problematic and largely unstructured role in the government’s review of transactions in the communications industry. Larry Downes (Larry Downes Consulting Group) & Geoffrey A. Manne (International Center for Law & Economics)
Shop ‘Til You Drop: Retail Mergers and the U.K. Competition Review Process
The increasing economic sophistication of the OFT’s decisions masks some of the legal limitations of the OFT’s role as a first phase regulator. Richard Blewett (Clifford Chance)
Merger Control in India
This review of recent transactions handled by the CCI suggests that many of the early apprehensions about implementation of India’s merger control provisions were misplaced. R.Shyam Khemani (MiCRA), Cyril Shroff & Nisha Kaur Uberoi (Amarchand)
-
Notable Authority Activity
How the FTC Could Beat Google
An unbounded Section 5 case will never be sustained by a reviewing court. Robert H. Lande & Jonathan L. Rubin
Education Before Enforcement? Key Insights From Australian Cartel Research
Research revealed problems with the assumptions that are made about the likely effects of criminalization on business behavior both as a deterrence mechanism and as a moral inducement. Caron Beaton-Wells (Univ. of Melbourne) & Christine Parker (Monash Univ.)
Has the Administrative Court’s Reversal of the IAA Decision in Pfizer Got It Right?
The issue of the relevance or not of the validity of Pfizer’s divisional patent remains, however, somewhat unanswered. Daniela Ampollini (Trevisan & Cuonzo)
