We’re observing the start of the holiday season with a cornucopia of controversial antitrust topics including FTC Commissioner Josh Wright’s response to our September colloquium on unfair methods of competition authority under Section 5, CRA culpability, confidentiality exceptions in disclosure, accurate damages calculation, compensating whistleblowers, the Gazprom case, and snack food dominance carried too far. Have a Happy Thanksgiving everyone!
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A Cornucopia of Antitrust Controversies
Recalibrating Section 5: A Response to the CPI Symposium
The absence of UMC guidelines can be counterproductive to the FTC’s competition mission, raising issues of fundamental fairness and potentially deterring consumer welfare-enhancing conduct. Joshua Wright (FTC)
Is There Misdiagnosis and Mistreatment in the Market for Credit Ratings?
Having more CRAs in a market characterized by monopsony power will likely only worsen the problem. Rosa Abrantes-Metz (Global Economics Group)
Ending the Confidentiality Exception to Due Process
Unfortunately, the opportunity to be heard in some jurisdictions, at least in investigations or proceedings involving unilateral conduct, is not meaningful in time or manner. Roy Hoffinger (Qualcomm)
Private Enforcement Under EU law: Abuse of Dominance and the Quantification of Lucrum Cessans
If the entire harm suffered from competition law infringements is to be claimed, then the calculation of damage should not be just a quantification of price effects, but also needs to quantify harm deriving from quantity effects. Frank Maier-Rigaud (NERA) & Ulrich Schwalbe (University of Hohenheim)
Bring in the Whistleblowers and Pay Them The Next Logical Step in Advancing Antitrust Enforcement
Mere protection from retaliation just isn’t going to cut it – nor is an enforcement policy that continues to depend so heavily on the cooperation and conscience of the guilty parties. Gordon Schnell (Constantine Cannon)
Competition Issues Regarding Procurement for Large Companies and Suppliers The Gazprom Case
This article demonstrates that even established and verified facts of agreements among producers are not sufficient conditions for either cartel identification and, as a consequence, prosecution of agreement participants. A.E. Shastitko (M.V. Lomonosov Moscow State University) & S.V. Golovanova (National Research University, Nizhny Novgorod)
Abusing Salty Snacks: A Bad Habit With Anticompetitive Effects
“They need to understand who the market leaders are and unfortunately for them we will not stop at this…”Lia Vitzilaiou (Lambadarios Law Firm)
