* This entry is a re-post of the contributor’s CCM Blog post, find link here.   On 24 January 2023 the U.S. Department of Justice (‘DoJ’), joined by multiple U.S. States including California and New York, filed an antitrust lawsuit against Google alleging that the “industry behemoth […] has corrupted legitimate competition in the ad…

Introduction Blockchain technology is a complex and innovative field that has raised questions about its potential impact on competition laws. As the use of blockchain increases, its unique characteristics, such as market power, interoperability, network effects, and transparency, become increasingly challenging to regulate. To tackle these challenges, competition authorities across the globe, including the European…

Lawmakers and Amazon.com are involved in a constant cat-and-mouse game. Amazon.com is the big winner when consumers and businesses extensively use its digital ecosystem. As a reaction, lawmakers regulate big tech companies to protect end users and business users. This blog post argues that these regulations are not always effective and that their application is…

Competition law mainly deals with microeconomic issues. Price theory orients its application, with price, supply, demand, and information being important parameters. However, microeconomics does not have a monopoly on influencing competition and competition law. Macroeconomic developments have roles to play as well. These roles may materialize in the form of monetary and budgetary policies. For…

Much noise has been made over the US FTC’s 2013 decision not to pursue charges against Google. A recent release of the full file has fueled this further, feeding into a general frustration over Big Tech and perceived enforcement deficits. However, most of the FTC file has been available since 2015, and but for a…

Few days ahead of a historic presidential election, the political pressure accrues and has already made one collateral casualty: Google. David Cicilline (D-RI) has issued a House Report where big tech companies, including Google, are threatened to be broken up. In the same week, Trump’s Attorney General William Barr launched a lawsuit against Google with…

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. …

The U.S. Department of Justice indicted Bumble Bee Foods CEO Christopher Lischewski on price-fixing charges. Lischewski is the first CEO to be charged for his role in the alleged U.S. conspiracy to fix the price of packaged seafood. The Northern District of California grand jury indictment alleges that Lischewski participated in meetings and communications where…

‘Product hopping’, or ‘evergreening’, are expressions used (by antitrust authorities and industry respectively) to describe strategies employed by pharmaceutical companies to protect sales of a successful drug on the verge of losing patent protection. For example, a pharmaceutical company might introduce a new formulation of the drug before it faces significant competition from a generic…