Competition Law and Antitrust Law

Across several recent cases, antitrust enforcers in Europe have demonstrated an increased willingness to consider novel solutions to close down investigations through commitments (without finding any illegal behaviour or imposing penalties), but still being able to point to real wins to consumers from their interventions...

On November 10, Judge Jeffrey Cummings of the Northern District of Illinois denied the Federal Trade Commission's (FTC) request for a preliminary injunction to prohibit the closing of GTCR's acquisition of Surmodics, giving GTCR control over the two largest suppliers of hydrophilic coatings for medical devices like catheters and surgical guidewires.

The Federal Trade Commission's (FTC) latest loss in a "litigate-the-fix" merger challenge demonstrates that U.S. courts are more inclined to apply more forgiving standards than competition...