The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and two Dallas therapist staffing companies have settled charges that they conspired to fix the wages of contract therapists in violation of the federal antitrust laws. This is the FTC’s first enforcement action under its joint guidelines with the Department of Justice (DOJ) on hiring and compensation issued in 2016. …
Document requests issued by the EU Commission (EC) have become common in complex EU merger cases. A few years ago, the EC would only ask for several hundred documents in such cases – now it has become standard to request several hundred thousand documents from each of the parties to the transaction, often within a short time period (once…
The UK’s Competition and Markets Authority (“CMA”) is consulting on proposed revisions[1]The CMA’s consultation document, and the Draft Revised Guidance, are available at: www.gov.uk/government/consultations/revised-guidance-on-competition-disqualification-orders. to its current guidance on director disqualification in competition law cases (the “Current Guidance”).[2]The Current Guidance is available at: www.gov.uk/government/publications/competition-disqualification-orders. The consultation on the CMA’s proposed revised guidance (the “Draft Revised…
As parents we tell our children that “sharing is caring” and “never be afraid to ask for help”. Although these are generally virtuous notions and good lessons to live by, they could easily get businesses into serious trouble with competition authorities. And even get you fined heavily or put in prison. Most businesses know very…
The products and services surrounding mobile phones (e.g. mobile apps, browsers, search engines) have already proved to be a separate marketing tool for undertakings. This has triggered and created new challenges for competition law enforcement. Indeed, the competition authorities have had to deal with defining new relevant product markets and evaluating their market dynamics. In…
On 20 July 2018, the new Chinese antitrust authority – the State Administration for Market Regulation (SAMR) – published two decisions sanctioning two ship tallying companies in Shenzhen for market partitioning and price fixing (see the Shenzhen Tally decisions here). Although the case is local and the decisions are short, the decisions have the potential…
On 19 July 2018 the Bulgarian Commission for Protection of Competition (“BCPC”) refused to approve two separate concentrations – the acquisition of the vertically integrated business of CEZ Group of companies (owned by CEZ a.s., Czech Republic) by Inercom EAD (Bulgaria) and the acquisition of Nova Broadcasting Group AD by PPF TMT (the Netherlands). Both…
On 12 July, the UK Government published a White Paper setting out its proposal for a future UK-EU relationship, following Brexit. The type of UK-EU relationship which this envisages is unprecedented, reflecting from the UK’s perspective, the UK’s unique circumstances as a current EU Member State in full regulatory compliance with EU rules, and a…
By its Decision № 717 dated 28 June 2018 the Bulgarian Commission for Protection of Competition (“the CPC”/”the Commission”) adopted a sector inquiry of a number of markets within the media sector. The decision contains some intriguing stances by the CPC, especially against the background of its own previous case law or the decisional practice…
Throughout the last year, the topics of globalization in the markets and digitalization of economy were extensively discussed within the governmental authorities and business community in Russia. One of the major concerns of the authorities and business community was development of competition in “digital era”. The Federal Antimonopoly Service (‘FAS Russia’) has found its pivotal…
