Antitrust

Antitrust refers to a field of economic policy and laws dealing with monopoly and monopolistic practices. Antitrust law or antitrust policy are terms primarily used in the United States, while in many other countries the terms competition law or policy are used. Some countries have utilized the phrases Fair

Trading or Antimonopoly law. The intellectual basis for antitrust economics or policy is the sub-field of industrial organization economics which addresses issues arising from the behaviour of firms operating under different market structure conditions and the effect this has on economic performance. Most antitrust or competition laws have provisions dealing with structure such as mergers, monopoly, dominant market position and concentration, as well as behaviour, such as collusion, price fixing, and predatory pricing.

Source: OECD

Antitrust, European Union

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The insurance block exemption regulation (IBER) protects statistical cooperation and certain joint insurance arrangements (inter alia line slips, pools, consortia, joint binding authorities). The EU report examining the IBER’s renewal concludes it is either superfluous or superseded.  But the report leaves many practitioners scratching their heads.  The report miss-describes industry fundamentals and omits essential practices benefitting…

Antitrust, Argentina

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In a recent media appearance, the new President of the Argentine Antitrust Commission (CNDC) and the Trade Secretary, gave some insights into the current status of the local antitrust regime and announced the introduction of several changes and amendments: The CNDC will launch 11 market investigations with the objective of assessing their level of competition….

Antitrust, European Union

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Summary On 10 March 2016, the European Court of Justice (ECJ) handed down judgments[1]Case C‑247/14 P – HeidelbergCement AG v European Commission; Case C‑248/14 P – Schwenk Zement KG v European Commission; Case C‑267/14 P – Buzzi Unicem SpA v European … Continue reading that provide useful clarification regarding limits on information requests issued by the…

Antitrust, Cartels, European Union

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Co-authored by Patrick Harrison and Audrey Silvain, Sidley Austin LLP.   There are few distinctions more important in EU competition law than that between the notion of a restriction “by object” – where a regulator need not demonstrate that conduct had anti-competitive effects – and the notion of a restriction “by effect,” where a regulator…

Antitrust

and (Ropes & Gray LLP)/ /1 Comment

The COMPAT’s recent judgment in Hiranandani contains several important lessons for the Indian antitrust community.  The case reflects the CCI’s desire for strong enforcement and effective deterrence of exclusive contracts in strategically important sectors (hospital services).  And it reflects effective judicial control by the COMPAT of the CCI’s process, institutional design, and analysis.  COMPAT’s lessons…

Antitrust

(Lenz & Staehelin)/ /1 Comment

Marcel Meinhardt and Astrid Waser, Lenz & Staehelin, Switzerland   The Swiss Federal Administrative Court (“FAC”) recently passed two new judgments on vertical agreements. In the first judgment, the Court endorsed its previous Gaba case law and confirmed a sanction against BMW AG (“BMW”) amounting to CHF 156 million for restricting direct and parallel imports….

Antitrust

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Hong Kong’s first cross-sector competition law – the Competition Ordinance (“Ordinance”) – finally came into full force on 14 December 2015. The Ordinance became law in June 2012, initially bringing into effect only the provisions allowing for the regulatory framework to be put into place.  Over the two and a half years run up to…

Antitrust

(Baker & McKenzie LLP) and (Baker McKenzie)/ /Leave a comment

While higher concentration/oligopoly should not lead in itself to greater problems, the reality is that agencies may be more suspicious; extra laws may apply; and complaints might be more likely. This blog post sets out the things that companies can do to preserve their commercial freedom and freedom from investigation: Contacts with competitors One area…

Antitrust, Cartels, Competition

(WKB Wierciński, Kwieciński, Baehr, Poland)/ /Leave a comment

“A strong and active antimonopoly authority is an incentive for undertakings to engage in prevention” – the President of the Polish Competition Authority presents his views on competition law compliance. Adam Jasser, the President of the Polish Competition Authority (UOKIK) has recently spoke to Bartosz Jagura of Viadrina Compliance Center about competition law compliance. It…

Antitrust, Cartels, European Commission, European Union

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On 4th November, the European Commission published a far-reaching consultation (the Consultation) on proposals to boost the enforcement powers of national competition authorities (NCAs) and to address differences between national competition enforcement systems in the European Union.  The Consultation builds on the 2014 Communication on Ten Years of Regulation 1/2003 (the Communication) but also reflects…