October Blog o’ Blogs

We start with a symposium close to many of our readers: 30 contributors on deregulating the law and legal profession. We follow with the 3 hot U.S. antitrust issues: Healthcare, Google, and AT&T, then first travel south—looking at a questionable decision in Mexico—and move on to 3 more continents. We look at a possibly earth-shaking case in China, welcome Botswana to the antitrust fold, and analyze a judgement on a potential conflict between Member State and EU competition policies. We finish with a refreshing drink—asking if Google’s foray into beer-making helps their antitrust case.

Symposium: Deregulating the Law-Deregulating the Legal Profession The U.S. is certainly not immune from the economic and other institutional forces nudging toward a reconsideration of existing licensing and regulation regimes-and antitrust issues are among the forefront of concerns. 30 Distinguished Opinion-Makers (Truth on the Market)

Federal Antitrust Agencies Offer Guidance to Health Care Providers Forming Accountable Care Organizations The Antitrust Division and FTC have decided to maintain the antitrust “safety zone” for ACOs. Jeffrey May (Wolters Kluwer Law & Business)

Google Antitrust Hearing: 5 Takeaways With all of the discussion around bias, it’s curious that experts with more neutral positions weren’t called to the hearing to offer their opinions. Mark Ballard (RKG Blog)

AT&T and the Economics of Monopoly The latest lawsuit from the Justice Department reflects a mindset reminiscent of 1913. L. Gordon Crovitz (The Wall Street Journal)

Will Mexico Harm its Citizens by Departing From Established Antitrust Policy? The opinion rests upon a deep misunderstanding of antitrust economics and is out of touch with modern antitrust analysis. George Priest (Forbes)

Chinese Antitrust Enforcement Agencies Ready to Show Teeth to Large State-owned Enterprises? If the abuse is successfully established, China Telecom may face huge fines under the AML. Susan Ning, Sun Yiming, & Liu Jia (Chinese Law Insight)

Competition Commission Has a Daunting Task Botswana operates a free market economy, albeit mitigated by developmental state interventions over the years. Dithapelo Keorapetse (Botswana Gazette)

AG Kokott’s Opinion in Toshiba: framing the application of the ne bis in idem principle in EU competition law enforcement How many competition authorities in Europe may deal with one and the same cartel and impose penalties on the participating undertakings? Damien Gerard (Kluwer Competition Law Blog )

Google, Vertical Integration, and Beer Google’s first attempt at brewing has resulted in a beer that taps ingredients from all across the globe. Josh Wright (Truth on the Market)