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Blog o’ Blogs January

By  |  August 15, 2017

The Blog o’ Blogs is back this January, with a re-cap dominated by end-of-year recollections, reflections and predictions for the new year as the world enters a turbulent 2017 and the momentous changes of recent months begin to translate into real-world effects. Check out this selection and make sure you haven’t missed a thing!

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    The Competition List for 2016
    It was another busy year for antitrust news.  Here’s my look back at the top ten FTC-related antitrust developments for the year that was 2016 (in chronological order):

    Debbie Feinstein, (FCC Bureau of Competition)
    In a December 2, 2016 decision, Retractable Technologies, Inc. v. Becton Dickinson & Company, the Fifth Circuit opined on when false advertising can lead to liability under the Sherman Act. The Fifth Circuit’s answer: Very rarely.
    Stephanie Gyetvan and Jonathan H. Hatch (Antitrust Update)
    Just as the European Commission was finalising its merger review of the Microsoft/LinkedIn deal, Verizon notified on 17 November its proposed acquisition of Yahoo.
    Chantal Lavoie (Lavoie Legal)
    Competition Law, Cartels and Compliance with Hein Hobbelen
    For any respectable competition lawyer, it’s not possible to ignore the latest Commission decision from 19th July 2016, which was a decision surrounding truck production…
    Hein Hobbelen (Competition Law Blog)
     On 20 December 2016, the UK’s Civil Aviation Authority (CCA) found that East Midlands International Airport Ltd (EMIA) and Prestige Parking had breached competition law, by agreeing that Prestige would not sell its car parking services at below a minimum price that was linked to the price of EMIA’s own parking services.
    Andreas Stephan  (UEA Competition Policy Blog)
    As 2016 comes to a close, a number of important trends in antitrust have emerged that will likely have lasting effects on competition law enforcement in the coming years.
    Jeffrey May (Antitrust Connect)
    Reflections on the Next Four Years of Antitrust Enforcement
    By the votes of a nation’s electors, the future of U.S. antitrust enforcement moved from “pragmatic aggressive enforcement as usual” to “too early to call.” The unexpected election of President-elect Donald J. Trump opened wide the speculation or mystery of what he and his advisors are planning as his administration’s antitrust policy.
    Donald C. Klawiter (Antitrust Law Blog)
    Pfizer and Flynn: How are ‘excessive’ prices for generic drugs possible and should competition authorities do more about exploitative pricing? 
    Last week the UK Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) imposed a fine of approximately £90 million on Pfizer and a generic manufacturer Flynn Pharma, on the grounds that each abused a dominant position
    Farasat Bokhari & Bruce Lyons(UEA Competition Law Blog)
    Time to Reopen Some Antitrust Division Field Offices?
    There has been much speculation about what a Trump presidency will mean for antitrust enforcement at the Antitrust Division and Federal Trade Commission.  Much of the wonder is about whether Trump will take an activist approach he suggested during the campaign, for example, when he said he thought Amazon had “a huge antitrust problem”
    Robert E. Connolly (Antitrust Connect)
    Time to Reopen Some Antitrust Division Field Offices? (Part II)
    In a recent post I advocated for the Trump administration to reopen some of the shuttered Antitrust Division field offices to help focus on public procurement bid rigging at the local and regional level. As discussed in the earlier post, the field offices have always been major contributors to the international cartel program, so this suggestion is not meant to diminish the international effort.
    Robert E. Connolly (Cartel Capers)
    Australian Draft Media Merger Guidelines: A Review
    The ACCC released its draft media merger guidelines in August 2016. Given the previous merger guidelines were released in 2006, these drafts outline the first proposed changes in over ten years.
    Joshua Wang (Comp Law Blog)
    Supreme Court’s Samsung v. Apple Decision and the Status of Design Patents
    On December 6 the U.S. Supreme Court handed down its much anticipated decision in Samsung Electronic Co. v. Apple Inc.  The opinion deferred for another day clarification of key policy questions raised by the design patent system.
    Alden Abbott (Truth on the Market)
    UK Competition Regulator Targets Big Pharma Over Excessive Pricing
    On the 7th November 2016, the UK Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) launched a campaign to remind online sellers that agreeing and discussing price level with competitors is illegal and can result in serious penalties.
    Robert Bell and Roman Madej (Bryan Cave EU Competition Law)