Blog o’ Blogs July

One case in particular is set to dominate the early summer, with major implications for the tech industry, global antitrust principles, and the world at large. Various points of view tackle the ‘Google Case’ decision, offering critiques and tracing the path ahead. Technology remains in the spotlight as we get new info on the growing lure of Blockchain to help tackle cartels (while exploring the technology’s own antitrust issues), and important media cases set precedents in Eastern European jurisdictions. A veritable collection of stimulating reads to help endure the heat, both physical and figurative, in the always smouldering world of Antitrust…

The EU’s Google Android antitrust decision falls prey to the nirvana fallacy
The European Commission launched its latest salvo against Google, issuing a decision in its three-year antitrust investigation into the company’s agreements for distribution of the Android mobile operating system….
Geoffrey Manne (Truth on the Market)

India -Rethinking Anti-Dumping Duties: A Competition Law Perspective
Prior to the enactment of the Indian Competition Act, 2002 (‘Competition Act’), the Supreme Court of India delivered a decision that has been consigned to irrelevance, yet poses interesting questions for the future of competition law in India.
Unnati Ashish Ghia (National Law School of India University/Kluwer Competition)

THE LATEST: FTC to Look Closely at Competition between Biologics and Biosimilars and Patent Protection Strategies of Branded Manufacturers
On July 18, 2018, US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) Commissioner Scott Gottlieb delivered a speech at The Brookings Institution in Washington, DC, discussing how to bolster competition from biosimilars while maintaining innovation.
 Will Diaz & Louise Aberg (Antitrust Alert)

A Too Familiar DOJ Press Release with a Sad Detail
The DOJ issued a standard press release yesterday announcing yet another individual guilty plea in its long running real estate foreclosure auction collusion investigation: Seventh Mississippi Real Estate Investor Pleads Guilty to Conspiring to Rig Bids at Public Foreclosure Auctions…
Robert E. Connolly (Antitrust Connect)

The European Commission’s Google Android decision takes a mistaken, ahistorical view of the smartphone market
What to make of Wednesday’s decision by the European Commission alleging that Google has engaged in anticompetitive behavior? In this post, I contrast the European Commission’s (EC) approach to competition policy with US antitrust, briefly explore the history of smartphones and then discuss the ruling…
Julian Morris (Truth on the Market)

“Single entity defense” under scrutiny in China
On 20 July 2018, the new Chinese antitrust authority – the State Administration for Market Regulation (SAMR) – published two decisions sanctioning two ship tallying companies in Shenzhen for market partitioning and price fixing…
Adrian Emch  (Kluwer Competition)

Supreme Court Says that Federal Courts, Not Foreign Governments, Decide Foreign Law
In an antitrust case deciding a non-antitrust-specific issue, the US Supreme Court held in Animal Science Products, Inc. v. Hebei Welcome Pharmaceutical Co.(the Vitamin C Antitrust Litigation) that to determine foreign law in federal courts, judges are not strictly bound by that foreign government’s statements….
Jarod Bona (The Antitrust Attorney)

Blockchains in competition law – friend or foe?
Blockchain (aka distributed ledger) technology is inherently neither pro- nor anticompetitive.[1] It however does have the potential to be both. Given the significance of this emerging technology, the competition law impacts of blockchain are worthy of exploration…
Michael Ristaniemi and Klaudia Majcher (Kluwer Competition)

European Arrest Warrant and Judicial Independence in Poland: Where can Mutual Trust end? (Opinion of the AG in C-216/18 PPU L.M.)
In these times when “strong headwinds” are blowing against the European culture of fundamental rights and the rule of law (see P. Pinto de Albuquerque), the principles of mutual recognition and mutual trust on which judicial cooperation in the EU is based have come under pressure.
Sofia Mirandola (European Law blog)

Why the Commission’s Google Android decision harms competition and stifles innovation
Our story begins on the morning of January 9, 2007. Few people knew it at the time, but the world of wireless communications was about to change forever. Steve Jobs walked on stage wearing his usual turtleneck, and proceeded to reveal the iPhone. The rest, as they say, is history….
Dirk Auer (Truth on the Market)

Global antitrust and competition trends for 2018
Norton Rose Fulbright have released their latest global antitrust and competition review for 2018. In this review they identify significant trends and developments that businesses need to be aware of across three areas: mergers, cartels and investigations and litigation…
(Norton Rose Fulbright)

Media Antitrust in Bulgaria – where do we stand after the media sector inquiry?
By its Decision № 717 dated 28 June 2018 the Bulgarian Commission for Protection of Competition (“the CPC”/”the Commission”) adopted a sector inquiry of a number of markets within the media sector.
Plamen Yotov and Aleksandra Kinaneva (Kluwer Competition)

South Africa Competition Tribunal: Merging parties penalised for failure to comply with Public Interest conditions
On 29 June 2018, the South African Competition Tribunal (Tribunal) penalised the RTO Group R75 000 for failing to comply with the Tribunal’s conditional merger approval in respect of two companies now within the RTI stable, Warehouseit and Courierit. The Tribunal approved the large merger in August 2015…
Michael-James Currie (Africa Antitrust)