Blog o’ Blogs April

April has brought the usual assortment of Easter-egg variety to the conversation surrounding the biggest issues in competition around the world. From the continuing questions surrounding digital markets to the growing concern with common ownership, a smattering of both new and old cases continue to give plenty of fodder to this month’s highlighted authors…

Google and the six billion dollar fine(s) : We have the technology, but do we have to rebuild the competition rules?
Debate in the competition law community has intensified around the issue of enforcement in digital markets in recent months…
Richard Hourihan, Joanne Finn (Kluwer Competition/Byrne Wallace)

Plaintiffs Targeting Biologic-Biosimilars Settlements with Pay-for-Delay Antitrust Claims
Antitrust principles that can invalidate certain pay-for-delay settlements will be expanding into the new frontier of biologic and biosimilar drugs if plaintiffs in several new suits are successful…
James J. Kovacs (Constantine Cannon)

Common ownership – where do we stand?
Common ownership currently is one of the focus topics in the antitrust community. Einer Elhauge, a Harvard Law professor, has called it the “greatest anticompetitive threat of our times”…
Thomas Wilson (Kluwer Competition/Kirkland & Ellis)

Confidentiality under Indian Competition Law and its Applicability
Confidentiality, an inherent feature in commercial arbitration and a preferred one too, is of great importance to antitrust proceedings…
Shilpa Singh (Kluwer Competition/KK Sharma)

South Africa: Trilogy of rulings against the Competition Commission demonstrates the importance of following proper procedure
In three recent decisions, two by the Competition Tribunal and one by the Competition Appeal Court, a number of important procedural flaws were exposed …
Editor (Africa Antitrust)

China’s Conditional Approval of Bayer’s Acquisition of Monsanto: Lessons for Future Merger Cases in China
On March 13, 2018, China’s Ministry of Commerce (“MOFCOM”)^] announced its Conditional Approval following antitrust review of a concentration of undertakings relating to Bayer’s proposed merger with Monsanto…
Shelley Zhang Li & Howard Ullman (Orrick)

The NCAA, Which Is Tied to Education, May Be a Necessary Monopoly
A class of athletes recently challenged the NCAA’s governing policies on antitrust grounds and won, but how much of a victory it is remains to be seen. By Carl W. Hittinger and Jeanne-Michele Mariani…
Carl W. Hittinger & Jeanne-Michele Mariani (Baker Hostetler)

Why Aren’t There More California Below-Cost Pricing Cases?
California’s below-cost pricing statute, the Unfair Practices Act (the “UPA”), is perhaps the broadest such statute in the nation...
Dylan Ballard (Antitrust Law Blog)

Who is Capable of Conspiring to Violate the Antitrust Laws?
Sometimes, the question is whether the defendants are actually capable of conspiring together…
Jarod Bona (The Antitrust Attorney)

We need leaders that embrace complexity, not dumb it down
In a recent NY Times opinion piece, Tim Wu, like Elizabeth Holmes, lionizes Steve Jobs. Like Jobs with the iPod and iPhone, and Holmes with the Theranos Edison machine, Wu tells us we must simplify the public’s experience of complex policy into a simple box…
Gus Hurwitz (Truth on the Market)

Oscars limits for streaming movies may violate antitrust law
If the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences ever wants to limit the eligibility of streaming services for the Oscars, it might have to contend with the US government first...
Jon Fingas (Engadget)

Visa’s Proposed Acquisition of Earthport – A Good Test for Antitrust in the 21st Century
As the 2020 Presidential election begins to heat up, something unusual is happening – antitrust policy is being bandied about as an election issue…
Jeffrey I. Shinder (Constantine Cannon)

Hell or High Water for Nidec
The phrase “come hell or high water” is said to have originated in the late 1800s in reference to the conditions cattle herders encountered when they trekked from Texas to the Midwest across large prairies in the summer heat and through deep rivers…
James J. Tierney (Orrick)

What Zoom can tell us about network effects and competition policy in digital markets
Zoom, one of Silicon Valley’s lesser-known unicorns, has just gone public. To get to where it is today, Zoom had to compete against long-established firms with vast client bases and far deeper pockets…
Dirk Auer (Truth on the Market)