An important – and largely unresolved – question in the antitrust law has been whether the acquisition of a partial, non-controlling, ownership interest in a competitor raises serious issues under the Clayton Act. On October 25, 2005, the United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit held in United States v. Dairy Farmers of America, Inc., Docket No. 04-6318,1 that such partial acquisitions may raise substantial antitrust issues. The Sixth Circuit’s decision reverses the decision of the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Kentucky, which held that the acquisition of a non-controlling partial ownership generally does not raise antitrust issues, absent direct evidence to the contrary....
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Surveys confirm what most retailers already know –- traditional advertising (e.g., television, direct mail, and print) are on the decline, and new media (e.g., blogs and viral marketing) are on the rise.
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On Dec. 23, 2011, a district court denied a motion to compel filed by defendants in ongoing litigation regarding alleged price fixing in the market for liquid crystal display panels used in computers and televisions.
Although most supply agreements are a benign business reality, when favorable terms negotiated with a supplier foreclose the buyer’s rivals from competing, the antitrust waters can get murky, and buyers, especially those with market power, risk government investigations and private litigation.
As has already been widely reported, on 13 May 2009 the European Commission (the "Commission") announced that it had fined Intel Corporation €1.06 billion ($1.441 billion) for violating EC Treaty antitrust rules (Article 82 EC Treaty) on abuse of a dominant market position by engaging in illegal anticompetitive practices to exclude competitors from the market for Central Processing Unit computer chips (CPUs).
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