Both proposed models would require greater ACCC analysis of
ordinary acquisitions.
The Commonwealth Government has released a discussion paper about whether the Trade
Practices Act 1974 (the TPA) should be amended to
make it easier for the Australian Competition and Consumer to take
action against so-called "creeping acquisitions".
"Creeping acquisitions" generally refers to the
acquisitions of a number of individual assets or businesses over
time which, individually, are unlikely to contravene the mergers
test in the TPA, but which, when taken together, may have...
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On July 23, 2010, the Third Circuit in "Race Tires of America, Inc., et al. v. Hoosier Racing Tire Corp., et al.", (Case No. 09-3989), affirmed the lower court’s summary judgment decision that exclusive, sole-source contracts between race tire supplier Hoosier Racing Tire (Hoosier) and organizations that sanction motorsports races did not violate the antitrust laws.
The new vertical agreements block exemption regulation for distribution of goods and services (the "New Block Exemption") and vertical restraint guidelines (the "New Guidelines") were adopted by the European Commission on 20 April 2010.
Now more than ever it is important to protect the interests of your business and to make sure that these are not prejudiced by the acts of a competitor.
The Netherlands Competition Authority ("NMa") has imposed fines amounting to €20 million in total on Dutch media company Koninklijke Wegener N.V. and five of its executives.
On 30 June 2010, the French Competition Authority (the "Authority") stated that Google had implemented the content policy of its online advertising service, AdWords, in a way which lacked objectivity and transparency and resulted in discriminatory treatment.
On 19 July 2010, the German Federal Cartel Office ("FCO") decided to close the proceedings against the German branch of the US agency AP and the German news service ddp for not notifying their merger to the FCO.
On 14 July 2010 the High Court ruled that a restrictive provision in a confidentiality agreement was anti-competitive by both object and effect and breached Article 101 of the TFEU.
On 20 July 2010 the Commission announced that it had fined five animal feed phosphate producers a total of €175.6 million for price-fixing and market sharing activities in the EU animal feed market.
Recent actions by the Chinese price regulator, the National Development and Reform Commission ("NDRC"), indicate an increasing emphasis on enforcement against pricing and other competition law violations.
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